her had been killed during labor.What he found out was it was just a lie to cover up the fact that hisreal mother did not even care about him. Once he discovered the truth,he vowed to find the woman that cast him aside. When asked by a friendwhat he would do when he found her, he said, Im not going to rob her.Im not going to touch her or rape her. All I want to do is kill her. Gilligans hypothesis is that the common underlying cause of violenceis shame. Violent behavior only results when three other conditionsoccur: 1) The individual does not see himself as having any nonviolentmeans to gain respect or find justice. 2) The shame and humiliation areso overwhelming they threaten to destroy the persons sense of self. 3)The violent impulses stimulated in all of us by feelings of humiliationare not inhibited by guilt, remorse, empathy, or love. The characterHannible Lechter, as shown in this clip from the movie Silence of theLambs explains it best. Rather than punishment, Gilligan said, one proven approach to reducingviolence is education, especially a college degree. Several years ago,Gilligan conducted a study in the Massachusetts Prison system in whichmore than two hundred inmates, including those that were convictedmurderers, earned degrees and were released from prison. So far, notone repeat offender has been found. Gilligan said We know that the single most effective factor whichreduces the rate of recidivism in the prison population is education,and yet education in the prisons is the first item to be cut when anadministration gets tough on crime. If our goal is to reduce crimeand violence, we would benefit all law abiding members of society if wemade college education available in the prisons. Gilligan said he isamazed by how inarticulate and incoherent many violent prisoners are.They have never learned to express themselves. They have never hadanyone to listen to them and take their thoughts seriously. If we canget them...
