In 2010, the International Police Organization (Interpol) busted what was, at the time, the largest ever Internet child pornography ring in history. There were about 150 of them, all over the globe, in various countries speaking different languages, and Interpol did an amazing job of liaising with a multitude of police agencies around the world so that they could take these monsters down simultaneously, so that the offenders couldn't warn one another or hear about the others being arrested on TV.
A crack piece of police work, one that was overshadowed by the gory details that typically come out of these stories. The crimes of these 150 individuals were so astonishing, so horrific, that, in my opinion, there aren't sufficient words in the English language to describe what punishment they ought to receive.
When I first read the article on CNN's website about this, I was floored. According to police reports, this Internet ring was slippery, and their hobbies more monstrous than usual rings like them. Apparently (and I hate to even describe these details), their website was set up so that members could view and upload their own videos of themselves torturing children. The more a member uploaded, and the more outrageous the material, the higher "status" that member gained on their website. The higher a member's status, the more material they could view. What qualified as "outrageous" was making the children cry during videotaping, or beating them, or both.
We often worry about demons and monsters--some adults I know still close their closet doors for fear of something that might come out of it, a lingering fear left over from childhood--but we so easily forget about the real, breathing, flesh-and-bone monsters right here on Earth. The most frightening part to me is that they are a member of our species.
In this article, I will be discussing how reading that article changed me, and how researching criminal organizations and other monsters, such as psychopaths, brought about the inspiration for my latest novel "Psycho Save Us."
Monsters Among Us
Over the years, I have gone through "phases" with my reading and research. Sometimes I go on a six-month kick just reading stories about the Civil War, or maybe spend a year reading about the intricacies of feudal Japan. Before writing "Psycho Save Us," I did a great deal of reading on prisons, organized crime, and criminal psychology. I have no degree in any of these fields, but, nevertheless, I studied the subjects as a student might.
You can't read books on psychology, much less criminal psychology, without eventually coming across the disturbing and often enlightening ground of psychopathy. What I found most disturbing is that, like the monsters in the Internet ring above, they can be more common than you think.
Many psychologists believe that about one out of every 200 people is a psychopath. To quote Dr. Robert Hare, creator of the PCL-R (Psychopath Checklist-Revised), "[Psychopaths] exhibit a cluster of
distinctive personality traits, the most significant of which is an utter lack
of conscience. The number of psychopaths
in society is about the same number as schizophrenics, but unlike
schizophrenics, psychopaths aren’t loners.
That means that most of us have met many."
If that last part gives you chills, don't worry, you're not alone.
Psychopaths might be described as being blind in a way. Imagine trying to explain the color red to someone who's blind. They'll just have to take your word for it, because they'll never see. Now imagine trying to explain compassion to someone who's "blind" to it, and you begin to see the difficulty in dealing with psychopaths. They are people who really can't quite understand why you and I feel so bad when we do something wrong, or why our feelings are hurt if we hurt someone else's feelings. Often, they actually believe your emotions really don't exist in the way that you think. They think we're all just playing a game, and they're going to play it better.
Even more frightening (as if that wasn't enough), many psychologists now believe that psychopahy is something that's there at birth, and that there's nothing anyone can do about it. No amount of nurturing can counteract it. You can't grow a conscience. At least, that seems to be the prevailing theory.
Interestingly enough, psychopaths almost never kill. That's right, it's usually people with normal emotions that kill. Emotions cloud judgement, and psychopaths aren't so crippled--although, when they do make the decision to act violently, there is no remorse, nothing holding them back.
Psychopaths aren't stupid, though. To quote Mary Ellen O'Toole, FBI Supervisory Special Agent, "One of the most common explanations is, ‘They
have to be crazy.’ But psychopaths are
not crazy. They know right from
wrong. If they were standing on a corner
next to a police officer and wanted to commit a robbery, they would know not to
do it as long as the officer is standing there."
Psychopaths can be diagnosed through something called the Psychopath Checklist (PCL), and it goes something like this. There are 20 questions based on the various criteria for determining psychopathy--narcissim, a grandiose sense of self-worth, unrealistic long-term goals, pathological lying, et cetera--and depending on how a subject answers, they either score a 0 (meaning it does not apply), a 1 (meaning it somewhat applies), or a 2 (meaning it applies a great deal). The highest score possible is therefore a 40.
Few psychopaths ever achieve 40, but it only takes about a 20 or 25 before someone can be considered a certifiable psychopath.
Real Monsters and the Supernatural Variety
In "Psycho Save Us," I created a dark world filled with human traffickers and child pornographers that are based off of the realities of such stories as those I've written about above. Because I have a flare for fantasy and the supernatural, the story takes a turn towards Stephen King territory as two sisters, Kaley and Shala, are abducted off the streets of Atlanta, in an area known as the Bluff, which is one of Atlanta's most crime-ridden areas. And, because I wanted to discuss the nature of evil, I decided to have the girls trying to escape while pitting two monsters against one another--kind of like Godzilla vs. Mothra, the kind of clashesI enjoyed as a kid--although it doesn't actually happen the way you might think.
I decided on having one character be a recently escaped convict, a certifiable psychopath, that the girls beckon using their telepathic powers. So, the story becomes a kind of detective story in a way, with the psycho Spencer Pelletier taking some cues from Kaley, who becomes a kind of Watson to his detached Holmes.
The girls represent innocence, obviously, and are also hardened by all that they see and experience. Also, by speaking with both their abductors and their would-be psychopathic savior, they are forced to ask some difficult questions; questions that they are perhaps too young to ask.
This bit was inspired by my mother's death when I was twelve. Many times when there is trauma, children are forced to grow up far too fast, and are asking very adult questions before they ought to be. It's the tragedy of these circumstances, as well as a necessary coping skill they must learn to develop, or else they might just lose their minds.
I wasn't happy about writing some of the things I had to write in this novel, but as an author you have to be honest, you can't look away. (That's the audience's decision, not yours.). Ultimately, I created a supernatural thriller I'm proud of, and one that I hope will provoke thought about these real-world monsters that we must contend with, so that we don't simply shove the subject aside, and wait for someone else with a stronger stomach to come to conclusions about it.
At the heart of the story are two sisters relying on one another to get out, and provoking one monster to save them from the other. A gamble that may or may not pay off.
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