Specify the key turning points when van der Sloot began his descent into deviant behavior. Next, determine whether or not you believe “sexual deviant” is an accurate label for van der Sloot. Support your position.
As it appears from the article, Joran Van der Sloot began to descend into deviant behavior ever since his family moved to Aruba in 2003. The validity of this suggestion can be shown, regarding the article’s lines that imply it was namely in the aftermath of der Sloots’ relocation that Joran became addicted to gambling and drinking alcohol. This development was bound to end on a sad note sooner or later because there were no objective reasons for the young man to consider parting away with the mentioned addictions, on his part. As it can be inferred from the article’s context, Joran’s parents used to allow their son to do just about anything he wanted to – something that contributed rather substantially towards turning him into a criminal.
It is quite clear that Joran is a socially dangerous individual – the deaths of Natalee Holloway and Stephany Ramirez at his hands remove any doubts in this respect. At the same time, however, there is simply not enough evidence that would allow us to assume beyond any reasonable doubt that Joran’s crimes are reflective of him having been a sexually deviant individual in one way or another. After all, Natalee’s body has never been found. Therefore, it cannot be ascertained whether her death had anything to do with the act of sexual intercourse, which according to Joran had taken place between him and the girl. The same applies to Ramirez’s death – it is most likely that Joran killed her in a fit of rage.
Debate whether or not the privilege of van der Sloot’s birth allowed a murderer to walk among everyday citizens. Justify your response.
The article’s context implies that the social circumstances of Joran’s upbringing did contribute rather substantially towards setting him on the path of deviance. Specifically, the fact that his father held one of the Aruba’s highest governmental offices endowed Joran with the sense of ‘entitlement’ while making him believe that he is exempted from the law, at least in the de facto sense of this word. In its turn, this increased the intensity of his dominance-seeking anxieties – hence, naturally causing Joran to derive sadistic pleasure from victimizing young women.
In fact, Joran’s case appears quite symptomatic. The reason for this is that, as practice shows, one’s status as the representative of the social elite establishes many psychological preconditions for the concerned individual to be unconsciously tending to regard the rest of people ‘inferior’ and not fully covered by the socially constructed and legally enforced ethical conventions (Arrick, Gilliland, & Veneziano, 2006). After having proven to himself that it is indeed possible to get away with committing a murder (because his father happened to be in cahoots with the police chief), Joran began to regard the value of another person’s life even lower – something that made it only a matter of time before this young delinquent would commit yet another murder.
Analyze the significance of two (2) characteristics of sexual deviance that are applicable to van der Sloot. Next, based on the characteristics you deemed applicable to van der Sloot, speculate whether or not there was a point that medical intervention could have helped van der Sloot overcome or better control his sexual deviance. Provide a rationale to support your response.
Even though there is still much uncertainty as to what were the actual technicalities of how Joran went about killing both women, one may have only a few doubts as to fact that this young man’s antisocial behavior was at least partially motivated by his sexually deviant unconscious anxieties. Given what we know about der Sloot’s case from the article, the two main characteristics of his sexual deviance are concerned with the culprit’s tendency to derive pleasure from imposing his dominance on women in an utterly violent manner and also with Joran’s inability to exercise much control over his emotions (Hanson, 2010). In light of many recent discoveries in the fields of biology/neurology, the mentioned psychological propensities, on the offender’s part, appear to have been biologically rather than environmentally predetermined. This presupposes that the only effective medical intervention in his case would have been prescribing Joran to undergo a psychosurgery (lobotomy). The offender would have also benefited from receiving some good beating in the dark alley, as the way to encourage him to treat women with respect – something that he now receives plenty in the Peruvian jail.
Suggest two (2) rationales for society’s changing attitudes towards what is deemed acceptable sexual behavior. Next, predict two (2) possible outcomes of the changing attitudes towards sexual behavior and its resulting influence on crime in the United States. Justify your response.
There are two rationales for society’s changing attitudes towards what is deemed acceptable sexual behavior – the socioeconomic and psychological. The former is concerned with the assumption that the process is triggered by the governmentally endorsed propaganda of ‘sexual diversity’, which in turn is supposed to reduce the severity of social (class-related) antagonisms within the society. The second rationale presupposes that as time goes on, the factor of ‘gender differentiation’ within American society becomes increasingly weakened – something reflective of the ongoing ‘feminization’ of men and ‘masculinization’ of women in it (Spada & Jeglic, 2016). The long-term effect of it will be the weakening of the society’s structural integrity.
The two outcomes of the mentioned process will be the eventual legitimization of many forms of sexual deviation, such as pedophilia, for example, and the consequential extinction of the whole groups of people in the US that appear especially susceptible to practicing ‘sexual diversity’ (such as White ‘yuppies’). The predicted development will result in the formal lowering of the crime rate in America (due to the decriminalization of sexual deviance), on one hand, and in making it much more likely for Americans (especially minors) to fall victims to sexual predators, on the other.
References
Arrick, J., Gilliland, K., & Veneziano, L. (2006). Routine activity theory and sexual deviance among male college students. Journal of Family Violence, 21(7), 449-460.
Hanson, R. (2010). Dimensional measurement of sexual deviance. Archives of Sexual Behavior, 39(2), 401-404.
Spada, A., & Jeglic, E. (2016). A cognitive-based indicator of deviant sexual interest: Concurrent validation of the Stroop task. The Journal of Sexual Aggression, 22(2), 246-262.