---
title: 'Savage Spawn: Reflections on Violent Children'
publishDate: 'Aug 13 2024'
tags: ['nonfiction']
excerpt: Reflections on Violent Children.
isFeatured: true
---

> A book by Jonathan Kellerman

The first couple pages of this book went down smooth, like a good greek yogurt. There were good points all-around and I found myself nodding along in agreement with Kellerman, especially the parts about the dubiousness of "FBI Profiling".

Then, Kellerman does a complete 180, with dated talking points on putting anyone who commits one crime away forever. The 11 and 13 year olds who committed mass murder with guns should be tossed in jail, do not pass go, even if they were literal children.

The three strike rule in California which has [disproportionally affects minorities](https://law.stanford.edu/three-strikes-project/three-strikes-basics/#:~:text=Statistics%20from%20the%20California%20Department,nothing%20to%20improve%20public%20safety) and despite the claim it was supposed to put away only _violent criminals_ such as rapists and murderers, that [wasn't the case when it was enacted](https://law.stanford.edu/three-strikes-project/three-strikes-basics/#:~:text=However%2C%20today%2C%20more%20than%20half%20of%20inmates%20sentenced%20under%20the%20law%20are%20serving%20sentences%20for%20nonviolent%20crimes).

I am not sure what kind of credentials Mr. Kellerman has to speak on psychopathy or law, but it is clear to me he isn't qualified to speak on either one.

Thinking that Kellerman was some sort of academic is a _my bad_ when picking up this book without thinking critically about who wrote it and the angle he was coming from.

Kellerman writes crime novels that are just as easy to digest as this book, so if you're looking for an easy read full of the copaganda you should expect from crime novels, read one of Kellerman's novels. Pass on this one.

---

## Annotations

Book last read: 2024-08-13 01:35:44
Percentage read: 100%

### Chapter 6: Chapter 3

**Annotation**

_Chapter progress_:

21.62%

Highlight:
_When smart police officials, such as those in New York, decide to lock up career bad guys no matter what the_

> Notes: Ooooh here we go...

### Chapter 6: Chapter 3

**Annotation**

_Chapter progress_:

21.62%

Highlight: _offense, crime rates plummet. The same goes for “three strikes” laws that incarcerate repeat offenders for life_.

> Notes: What is the current data on this?

### Chapter 6: Chapter 3

**Annotation**

_Chapter progress_:

22.52%

Highlight: _The most effective way to fight violent crime in the short term is to focus upon habitually violent people when they are very young and not to get distracted by social theorizing that leads nowhere_.

> Notes: Agreed.

### Chapter 6: Chapter 3

_Chapter progress_:

23.42%

Highlight: _distinctions between good and evil, excuses about how we all sin from time to time, how there’s really no such thing as abnormal, merely variants along a subtle continuum. True, very few of us are saints. But that has nothing to do with serious crime. Or with psychopaths. Bad people are really different_

### Chapter 6: Chapter 3

**Annotation**

_Chapter progress_:

23.42%

Highlight: _Forget all that situational-ethics gibberish about fine_

> Notes: What is with this binary thinking here?

### Chapter 8: Chapter 5

**Annotation**
_Chapter progress_:

27.93%

Highlight: _Prison sentences were radically shortened, the back wards of mental hospitals were unlatched, and efforts were made to integrate career criminals and the severely mentally ill into society, with disastrous results on both fronts. Alcoholism and drug abuse, common in both criminals and psychiatric_

> Notes: Oh fuck off. Done.
