Under certain conditions a Vietnam veteran or a battered spouse can use post
traumatic stress disorder as a defense, but a brutalized product of the ghetto doesn't
seem to have the right to that same defense because he/she has no real reason,
other than their own decision, to blame for their actions.
“For instance, the victim of a PTSD-afflicted veteran is often an innocent
passerby, and the battered-spouse doctrine certainly raises questions about personal
responsibility and lowered expectations. And if, as seems likely, some ghetto
residents do have PTSD largely as a result of their living conditions, it’s hard to see
why this ailment should be exculpatory for veterans, say, but not for ghetto
residents. After all, a disease is a
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This “ghetto defense” proved fruitless in Morgan’s
case. In court, the young woman was found both sane and guilty.”
Society doesn't do anything to help kids like Felicia get out of the horrific
conditions that they grow up in, and yet whenever someone who lived in these
conditions commits a crime, they have no empathy and find them guilty. I believe
that people who grow up in the ghetto can suffer from PTSD and deserve to get
help. No matter if it was war, abuse or living in horrible conditions like Felicia that
caused the stress, PTSD is a disease that one cannot escape on their own.
Unfortunately not everyone sees people who grew up living in horrific conditions
contenders for PTSD; they don't believe that growing up in the ghetto can be as
traumatic as going to war.
Will society ever accept people who have grown up under horrific conditions as
people suffering with PTSD? I think that if we start getting the children in these
living conditions help at any early age we can reduce their crime rate and give
them a better opportunity for a more positive