How do you measure evil? Is depravity quantitative? A forensic scientist - who has given testimony in the Andrea Yates case as well as the trial of Elizabeth Smart's kidnapper, Brian David Mitchell - has been compiling information about people's perceptions of what depravity is and categorizing evil for 13 years.
Dr. Michael Welner and his colleagues at the Forensic Panel in New York released a questionnaire asking volunteers to rate 25 violent crimes in order to mold a "Depravity Standard," according to Fox News. State officials are looking to take notes on the standard so guidelines on subjective items can be created in the prosecutorial process.
"In criminal courts today, the decision to charge a case as heinous, atrocious, cruel, depraved or vile rests with the prosecuting authority," Welner told Fox News. "But because the law does not include a standard to what constitutes an evil crime, that decision is either visceral or one that may be driven by political considerations, bias or sensationalism."
"A Depravity Standard that is rooted in specific hallmarks of intent, actions, attitude and victimology keeps prosecutors accountable to fully investigate a crime for these unique qualities so that evidence informs decision making," Welner told Fox News.
Welner is asking for adults to complete the survey. The results will be added to previous survey results that had 30,000 participants.
"At the conclusion of this phase, we will be able to assign weights to homicides, sex crimes, assaults and non-violent crimes to enable all crimes to be compared against one another - and to actually determine the level of evil in a crime," Welner told Fox News.
If you'd like to take the survey, log on here: https://depravitystandard.org/register.html
