Biological Criminal Behavior: David Tarloff's Case

Biological Criminal Behavior
Randy Morgan
Axia College Jennifer Duncan February 9th, 2013

After being accused of murder in February, David Tarloff was being kept in a locked ward three stories up in Bellevue Hospital. David Tarloff, 39, is under evaluation after his arrest in the killing of psychologist, Kathryn Faughey with a meat-cleaver on the Upper East Side. The police said after he killed Kathryn he then went on to stab Dr. Kent D. Shinbach. Tarloff, diagnosed as a paranoid schizophrenic in 1991, has a very long psychiatric history. After years and years of his family trying to get
him committed and just going from one hospital to another the story was not getting any better.
One week before the murder he was arrested for a violent behavior at one of the hospitals. With just a slap on the hand, he was released into the community to go on to kill Kathryn Faughey just the next week. David Tarloff has been evaluated and committed more then a dozen times in his life time. Over the years he has been put on many of drugs to treat schizophrenic and bipolar such as lithium, Depakota, Haldol, Seroquel and Zyprexa and along with that, shock treatments have been given. After months of being in state hospitals and psychiatric reports, it has been determined that David Tarloff is unfit to stand trial. After being found fit to stand trial in one county in Queens, New York another county in Manhtatten says he is not fit to stand trial. Tarloff is now back at Rikers Island, where his attorney says he is not taking his medication all the time and has been suicidal in the last couple of months. The psychopath is unable to feel sorry for others in unfortunate situations or put himself in another’s place, whether or not they have been harmed by him. “They are all very egocentric individuals with no empathy for others, and they are incapable of feeling remorse or guilt” (The Psychopath:Rebecca Horton,
April 1999). The study of the psychopath reveals a person who is not capable of feeling guilt or remorse for their actions. They are very cunning and really do know the difference between right and wrong but think it does not apply to them. The psychopath is incapable of normal emotions such as love and they generally do things without first considering the consequences. So, the question is, Does biology play a key role in explaining the offender’s criminality? Is there a real answer to this question? In this paper we are going to look at behaviors that constitute psychopathy. We will also discuss the specific behaviors demonstrated by David Tarloff that align with behaviors of a psychopathic individual. We will also discuss the genetic or physiological evidence that supports the notion that biology played a key role in explaining the offender’s crimes. Is David Tarloff a psychopath or just another person trying to get away murder? The answer is up to the reader I guess but so far Mr. Tarloff is where he wants to be and going to court in the near future. References

McCord W. & J. (1964) The Psychopath: An Essay on the Criminal Mind. Princeton: Van Nostrand