A couple of days ago, one of our bloggers wrote an article on the Joker. She talked about how the new trailer normalizes criminal behavior.
The scenes, she believes, make us sympathetic towards the Joker because of the experiences that he goes through and thus we also become alright with his criminal behavior.
This narrative is not that uncommon. One line from the article perfectly encapsulates what a lot of people think “Everybody has bad things happen to us, that does not mean one of us then tomorrow terrorize an entire city or do criminal things.”
This kind of thinking is the underlying problem that keeps this vicious cycle of criminality going. The casual disregard of criminal psychology and the blame being put only and only on the criminal alienates and ostarcizes them.
And that is when the real trouble begins. Our criminal justice system is so broken that it fails to address the problems that lie at the root and aggressively hit at only the symptoms.
Let’s talk about the Joker, Phoenix’s in particular. We see a man with no bad intentions of being traumatized by society. His only outlet is his mother, who looks sick and not able to take care of herself.
We see him trying to go about trying to have a normal life and being attacked and bullied. We see him breaking down and leaning towards his psychopathic tendencies.
He’s anti-social, egotistical, and feels no empathy, and oscillates between being happy and sad. That kind of behavior cannot be addressed by throwing him in a prison, which is what happens to people like him.
In fact, it aggravates the problem even more. The combination of an oppressive environment and lack of treatment make their illness even worse. Plus, they are shunned by society.
Related: In Pics: Joker’s New Look Revealed – Is Joaquin Phoenix Convincing Enough?
Considering how mental illness is not even considered in society, the problems just keep on piling. Now saying that bad things happen to everyone and that’s not an excuse stands no ground. There are special circumstances attached to them.
Many of them are mentally ill in need of help. A lot of them are in jail for a petty crime like theivery. As a society, we need to address underlying issues so that we can fix the cycle of violence.
The Joker would not have blown up places if he had help. His therapist would have helped him overcome his issues and he would be a normal man and not a psychopath.
I know I am not an expert either in psychology or criminality. This is my fervent belief that criminals need understanding rather than jail.
All crimes are definitely not the same but we should not spend so much time and money to unnecessarily jail and torture people who can be reformed in a different way.
Reach the blogger at: @tanmaymay_
Image Source: Google Images
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