Are we all potential murderers? Not according to a criminologist |
Are you capable of killing someone? What if you’re in a particularly bad mood? What if someone’s really asking for it? In the BBC’s new drama Inside Man, David Tennant’s character, a vicar, is falsely accused of owning indecent images of children, writes Tom Ough. He faces the following everyday dilemma: should he allow his accuser to spread the falsehood? Or should he just bump her off when he has the chance? Thus begins a show that explores the idea that “everyone is a murderer. You just have to meet the right person.”
Those words are uttered by Stanley Tucci’s character, Jefferson Grieff, who speaks from experience: he is locked up on Death Row and awaiting his execution. But is he right? Is there, inside every non-murderer, a murderer trying to get out? David Wilson, professor emeritus of criminology at Birmingham City University, thinks not. He, too, speaks from experience, having spent his professional life working with men who have committed murder, supervising them as a prison governor and interviewing them as an academic.
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