As if the recent tragedy of the Maloney family – father, mother and two children killed by a speeding motorist as they headed home from vacation were not enough – we’ve now been subjected to the horror of two people burglarizing the Maloney’s vacant home.
The natural reaction to such behavior is outrage and disgust, and now that the burglars have been apprehended, they will experience the outrage they have earned. No doubt, prosecutors, judges and jury (should matters come to trial) will express their anger, though this will give small solace to those who knew and loved the Maloney family. Certainly, both burglars deserve justice and punishment for their crimes, and they certainly will get it.
Yet this incident prompts consideration at a deeper level than the application of justice; people are shaken by the depravity of such callousness. Many find themselves recoiling from the thought that two people could be so cold and calculating, and their confidence in others is shaken. While it is easy to transmute such feelings into thoughts of revenge, the perpetrators already live in a hell-like realm of drug abuse, addiction and crime. For these two, prison may be easier than life “outside.” There is no excuse for their behavior, and they must be accountable for their terrible actions, but it’s worthwhile to consider what value might be found in understanding how it is that two people can behave in this way.
No person is born a criminal; no infant is guilty of any crime. Along the way, something terrible happened to these two people, and I would like to know what it was. It’s easy to simply relegate them to the trash heap and throw them in the slammer for twenty years, but the particular nature of this crime prompts me to want to know more. When such coldness emerges into public view, it should not be ignored; there has been something lost in these two souls, a slice of humanity has disappeared from view, and I am curious about what it is behind lost lives like these.
The media pounces on stories like this, savoring the sensational and gruesome aspects of it. The burglars will be demonized and used to build circulation. Those hungry for revenge will let their own hatred loose for a while, and a primitive form of social hysteria will ensue. If we lived in ancient Rome, the burglars would be thrown to the lions before a cheering crowd. All this teaches us nothing, however, about how humanity is lost and the root of suffering.
Our criminal justice system metes out punishment. Inclinations towards understanding, rehabilitation, restitution and reintegration have been set aside. The two burglars will join a locked-down society of sociopaths, victims of their own suffering and the suffering they have caused others.
I’m not looking for sympathy for the burglars, but I am hoping for greater understanding of what drives individuals towards social depravity. We can point to drug addiction, but something underlies that. We can point to poor parenting, but what are the hows and whys of that? Most of us would say, “Who cares?” But, without some deeper understanding of the lives of these two burglars, we have no hope of learning anything, and lacking that, we have no chance to cure such cold-heartedness in others.
