A paper recently published in the Journal of Zoology says that great white sharks hunt in a highly focused fashion, just like serial killers.
According to a report on ScienceDaily.com, the researchers used geographic profiling—a criminal investigation tool used to find serial killers based on the locations of their crimes—to examine how the hunting patters of great white sharks off the coast of South Africa.
Sharks establish well-defined hunting bases in strategic locations. The researchers noticed that smaller sharks searched further, and had less success, than larger sharks. They surmised that great white sharks refined their search patterns with experience, and concentrated their hunting in locations with the highest probability of success.
For more information on the study, read Geographic profiling works: Great white sharks’ hunting skills as refined as Jack the Ripper’s.
Although I have this feeling about most everything I read on LF, once again I have to say that’s a very interesting study! It made me think of something that I have pondered before… given evolution theories, (and in this case the theory that humans evolved from sea life?) it seems as if the predatory “traits” we see in sociopaths/psychopaths, would have been valuable traits for our earliest anscestors. And, while humans, in general, have evolved, those traits that have served sociopaths well throughout history, of course, have been passed on in their gene pool. I think of ADHD the same way… at some point in history the ability to not be too focused on any one thing and be constantly aware ( which we now call distracted) of everything in your surroundings was probably a valuable trait. So given all that, for a percentage of the human race, sociopathic traits “worked” and were maintained and the rest of us evolved… I bet somewhere someone studying brain evolution could either prove this or has proven it, since I vaguely remember some article stating the brains of S/Ps are visibly different…
I’m not supposed to be posting until I tell my story, LOL, so please excuse my lapse in doing so ! But, since I am here I have a question and a couple comments:
Kathleen Hawk – may I ask how long you have been in recovery since your experience with the sociopath? Your insight and ability to weave it all together are inspiring and helpful.
Matt – haven’t “seen” you around lately, so I hope that you are OK and that the family situation is manageable for you right now… and I echo the comments of all those who think your advice to others is priceless and you should write a book or be an advocate of some sort! I googled your quote about sunlight being the best disinfectant and really enjoyed reading about the source of the quote Justice Brandeis.
To everyone else walking the path of recovery keep putting one foot in front of the other and remember that ” a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step!”
Have a great day everyone!
Makes perfect sense. Explains why some sociopaths are afflicted with the “big fish in a little pond” syndrome.
Having watched a few documentaries on sharks and the many different kinds of sharks has been interesting. One thing stated was how sharks are evolved to do but two things which is to survive and pass along its genes: 1) hunt and 2) reproduces.
That’s all sharks do they eat and make little baby sharks. They have no social life or group need to co-exist and in fact will attack each other in mistake of prey in a feeding frenzy. These are lonely creatures in the deep blue sea and if they stop swimming (forcing water through their gills for oxygen) will die. But for evolutional standards they are perfect killing machines.
Also of interest to me is how dolphins had been known to attack and kill sharks. Dolphins being a very social creature and reported to be a very highly intelligent creature and have a social network set in place for the survivor of the specie. Reports have been reported that dolphins have saved drowning young children by pushing the child to the surface (for air) as they do with they own baby dolphins. Another interesting like about dolphins is how they are one of the few creatures other then men that as juvenile dolphins will have sex for fun.
Thanks Donna and a very interesting subject.
That’s why it is a good idea to stay out of the bars and nightclubs, if you are looking for real love or a long, healthy relationship.
And they don’t have to be serial killers to be really dangerous.
From my own personal experience, bars and clubs are prime hunting grounds for “great white sharks”, if you know what I mean.
Granted, they are EVERYWHERE, but the clubs on a Friday or Saturday night are usually crawling with predators.
That’s where I met mine. 🙁
(Another interesting like about dolphins is how they are one of the few creatures other then men that as juvenile dolphins will have sex for fun.)
Sorry should have type: “other then us”
Sorry ladies….. 🙁
Rosa
Have to agree with you, finding a life partner in a bar isn’t how I would want to remember our first encounter. In fact I have never “pick up” an woman in a bar. Met a lot of good friend but that’s about it.
When I was in South Africa in the 1960s, the beaches where we swam were surrounded by nets to keep the sharks out. There was also a learning and research center there in Durbin on the sharks and their predation.
Interesting to me though, was that the nets were NOT a big circle, with the ends coming up to the beach, but instead just strung out in FRONT of the beach with both ends OPEN. Every day the boats would go out to remove the sharks caught in the net, and more were caught in the beach side of the net, than in the ocean side of the net….so the sharks WERE in the water on the beach side of the net, but there would be NO attacks as long as the net was in place. I found that very VERY interesting, and I quit going into the water over knee deep after that! LOL
Then I got stung by a jellyfish called a “blue bottle” that has tenticles 50 ft long though it is the size and shape of a coke bottle, so I quit going into the water all together when we were in town and could go to the beach. I just hung out on the sand and in the sun (didn’t know about sun screen back in those days!) until I was the color of saddle leather!
Hecates, glad you are here and you are not “required” to post your story if you do not wish to as a prerequisite for posting. Glad you did post though, as your ideas are quite interesting to me and I agree that the P-genes have at some time in our human history confered a benefit in terms of survival or they would not have persisted. I can definitely see how in a tribal situation for our cave-living ancestors where food was in short supply much of the year that the P would still eat even if every one else starved, and also see that the P would have sired more children as well, simply by FORCE if no other way.
As civilization “advanced” I can also see that groups led by Ps who were “in control” would prey on other groups who were not so violent, and again, garner more food and more women, to better pass on their genetic material and survive.
The biggest, meanest SOB on the “block” would get more food and get more women than the less violent or more empathetic males. It has only been in the last 100 years with advancement of technology so food can be preserved 12 months of the year that anyone on the planet has had a balanced and sufficient diet….in 1905 my own great grandmother died of a niacin deficiency from living on “meat (salted pork), Meal (corn) and molasses” 8 or 9 months out of the year and not having a sufficency of fresh meat or vegetables.
Dr. Leedom I think mentioned in another thread that there is evidence that in “public housing” in England that 25% of the children there are sired by psychopaths. In our own country, I think that number is probably at least equal or more so with about 90% of children born to teenaged mothers being reported as illegitimate (which I would say would predispose those children to a life of dysfunction, if not other problems, as well, such as probably poverty, lack of educational availabiity, etc.)
But I guess I am a judgmental old biddy thinking that a child should be conceived and raised by TWO parents who are ADULTS and emotionally bonded together and to the child for best results….not to say that a single parent can’t raise children successfully, I have been a single parent myself due to a divorce not of my own doing or choosing.
As many of you who have been here a while know that I do have one biological son who is a flaming psychopath, and one that is not, but I do not “blame” my son being a psychopath on how he was raised, but basic bottom line, it is the genetics I passed on to him from my father, and the genetics passed on to him from his fraternal grandfather who I believe was also a psychopath.
I am glad, however, that I have NO biological grandchildren. My P son has been prevented from siring any by being in prison his entire adult life, and my other son has chosen NOT to have children….which I fully support his choice, though I would LOVE to have grandchildren, I think that the genetics in our family make it way too risky.
Oxy- Wow, you really gave us some real education here with your post.Loved it!! This entire thread has been very useful. AND you said (previously on another blog) that you couldnt find your brain.. aww come on , their overrated anyways. Mine went M.I.A. years ago,besides, any more intelligence here, and I couldnt keep up-must keep it simple for the blonds like me! xoxo,,Sabrainiac
Matt, Oxy, Erin, James, ANewLily – I think I mentioned the veterans, did not mean to leave anyone out. I don’t think I am at liberty to give details, but wanted to touch upon the criminal aspect, and it seems to be the topic of this article. I am finding out a lot of discrepancies through the process of discovery and they are mind shuddering. I am more and more certain of criminality of a certain someone. In the presence of all the questions and incongruencies, and in the absence of data, when do you think the authorities become interested?
My pocket is being sucked dry and I was hoping for more capable institutions to continue my investigation that seems now to be far beyond just a civil matter. Has anyone on this site dealt with a similar issue?
Rosa
Bars – Yuk!
I didn’t meet the S in a bar but I might as well have!
Found out later that these were his ‘hunting grounds’ while he was ‘just playing darts with the boys’ etc. while the ‘stable’ partner (me) was safely tucked up at home – my brother, brother-in-law, son and 2 close family friends (both male) thought he was a ‘slimeball’ on sight – as I have said before, other men are better at spotting the ‘male predator’ than women. Fully intend to elect a committe to of males to advise me if I am ever foolish enough to dip my toe in the water again! Wish they’d all told me at the time!