Were a serial killer? And by protect, I mean would you keep their secret from the law? And you have Concrete evidence/proof that they are the ones behind the serial killings/molestations.

Ok, now that's out of the way, here is where I came up with this from(I didn't). On another forum(GiTP) a discussion popped up about whether or not a character in the sites webcomic(OOTS) was being a terrible son for helping a rebellion to likely eventually kill his father, a father who was a horrific tyrant and responsible for the slavery and death of thousands/tens of thousands of people. Eventually the discussion begin being brought into the real life and one person outright stated that as long as it did not impact their life in a meaningful way, that they would not turn their father into the police, even if they knew that he was a serial killer.

I of course thought that was outright insane, and stated as much, but before the discussion could really be gotten into(just enough for me to find out that at least one or two other people actually agreed with the other person), it was brought to a halt, as apparently the site rules forbid lengthy discussion on the subject of morality(something I did not know). So, I'm bringing it here as I know our site rules don't forbid such a discussion, and it seems an interesting topic.

I personally would turn my father in if I found out he was a serial killer(or even just rapist). I love my father dearly, and with the exception of my wife, respect him more then anyone else in this world, yet if I discovered he was killing people for whatever sadistic pleasure he got out of it, I would turn him in a heartbeat. To take it a step further, I would turn in my own wife if she became a serial killer. I would feel bad for the loss of the person they were, but not for the person they had become, and I honestly find it a bit mind-boggling(and also quite criminal, pretty sure you would be arrested as well if you knew and didn't say anything) that someone would actually allow someone they know to get away with repeated murder.

Now, I add the caveat that if it was an accident, I might, depending upon how badly it affected my conscience, help them cover up an accidental death they caused, and obviously I wouldn't say a word if it was in self-defense of themselves or their children/grandchildren, but outright murder(or repeated murder)? Not a chance, I'll hit em with a frying pan and they'll wake up in the police station.

So what is your opinion on the subject fellow CDers? Let `em keep doing it, or turn them in, and why?

No, why would I? They broke the law and are criminals and deserve the punishment they receive for their crimes.

If I knew then I would be just as guilty as they were by not turning them in. Right?

No. A good serial killer shouldn't get caught.

I don't know how I'd handle it, honestly. It's easy to say "call 911! forget they were ever your friend! they are literally hitler!" but if you know the whys, and they had specific targets, and they pull anything like "I thought you'd understand man, I partially did it for you, he treated you like crap too! We go back from the 80s, man!", it could get hard.

If it were a one time deal, I dunno, I may be able to pull a "I never saw anything, but don't talk to me again", MAYBE. Depends on the love I had for them and what happened. Most likely not, but life has a weird way of putting you in awkward situations.

I planned out my life as a serial killer when I found out why I wanted to get into it.(not really, it was more of a brain simulation, don't freak out) The most exciting bit was walking around as a lion in sheeps clothing, shaking hands with prospective employers or my friends while my hands are drenched in figurative blood. Not the actual deed of killing. So now that I think on it, perhaps I ought to turn them in. Who is to say I won't be the next victim just so they can keep the gig going. Would sharing the same blood protect me from their wrath?

my parents? my siblings? totally. i'd urge them to stop, certainly, offer to help them get out of doing it, but i'd never turn them in.

if it was like my partner or my spouse or something then no, [censored] them. you can replace people you meet in seconds. there's millions of people around every corner, and in the time it takes for you to say "goodbye" to one of them you could be saying "hello" to three others.

but you can't replace family. you only get one of those.

Family is important, but they are more important than multiple other peoples lives? People who likely have families who love them as much as you love your family? People who have kids who rely on them to protect and provide for them? Their lives are meaningless when compared to your family member who is going out there and killing them?

Personally, I'd put it the other way around: You don't get to choose your family, so if you rat them out, meh, who asked to be born into their lives in the first place. You choose your spouse, and you say your vows, they aren't so easily replaced. You spend(usually, unless you luck out) years and years searching for that one person that matches you and fills you out in all the right ways, the person who completes your heart. That is not easy to replace at all, so I would have a harder time turning in my wife then I would my Dad, but in the end, my wife's life, nor my Dads is more important then multiple other peoples lives.

There is no situation so bad that calling the cops won't make it worse.

I am not the law; in fact, my moral compass is very flexible depending on the circumstances. I think that what would determine whether I'd turn in my mother, father or whatever would depend on their motives behind the murders. Are they evil sadists? Turn them in. Did they have reasons that in my eyes were justifiable? Let them be. I value family bonds a lot, and I'd protect those whom I love. Does it make me a terribly person? Probably.

It's difficult.

Huh? Lol, you lost me there man. Are you saying not to call the cops if you find out that your parent/loved one is a serial killer? Or that you would?

I'm saying calling the cops makes that bad situation worse...as it always does.

nobody's life is meaningless, but nobody is as important to me as my family. if they're out there killing people there's a clear reason for it that i will understand and be able to help rectify better than any outsider.

you don't choose your family - you're given one, by god or by math or by whatever the [censored], and you wound up with this ragtag group of [censored]ups and they determined the language you speak and the country you reside in and the life you live. it's not perfect or clean or logical but it's beautiful and moreover it's yours. it's nobody else's.

you choose your partner. you seek them out in a crowd of people, maybe spending decades doing so, and if it turns out that they're broken or that they lied to you that's a mistake on your part. it's something you chose. there is nothing inherently special about that person other than the time you invested in knowing them. maybe they changed you, but they didn't make you, and if the extent of their brokenness is great enough there is no reason to protect them.

I could never look in the mirror again if I didn't turn them in, regardless of cold-blooded murder or an accident, though, I would urge them to turn themselves in first. They are entitled to a fair trial by their peers, also, I wouldn't want to go down as an accessory.

If my father was a crazy serial killer, then I'd turn him in immediately. If it was a one time thing with a justifiable reason behind it, I would only encourage him to turn himself in but wouldn't directly intervene. I wouldn't be fine with it just because it may have been justified, but if he's not insane he should have to make the decision of his own will. If my father is really a good person, he would listen to me and I shouldn't have to force him. If he doesn't know what to do, then why would I want to protect him from the law?

This scenario is hard for me to imagine, because I'm not 100% sure how I would feel about them if I found out one of my parents or someone close to me killed someone. I'm confident they wouldn't. Not to be one of those people that ruins a just-for-fun question with logic, but I'm just throwing that out there.

Probably just angry sentiment, in a fair majority of countries you are likely to get beaten down and strip-searched for any minor association with any sort of criminal. Not long ago this happened here to a couple on vacation (the woman being pregnant at the time) as the summer house they were residing in was raided because of a suspicion that they might be hiding a criminal on the loose, because they had a friend over who had recently done time in jail (did his time and got out legally) and he had known the criminal that was on the loose. So you don't really have to be very guilty of anything to get rough treatment, zero tolerance. But that's pretty off-topic for this thread.

If I were in the situation described in the OP I would report it, no one should get away with intentionally ending the life of another innocent individual (because I will assume that the murder is being done to someone innocent with no gray areas here), not even family, but of course I would try to do it anonymously and I'd spend a week or two with family outside of the city as I waited for the case to cool down.

I guess I just disagree on the family bit. I'm not close to anyone except my Father, and my step-mom. My biological mother, well, I'll piss on her grave the day she dies, and be the happiest I've ever been when I do it. There is nothing inherently special about the family you're born into. It's a fluke, a sheer act of nature, there is absolutely nothing that truly connects them to you except the fact they gave birth to you. On the other hand, your thoughts, your feelings, your emotions are what bound you to the person you chose to spend the rest of your life with. If something snapped inside their brain, it's not your fault for not seeing it, it's just something that was probably going to happen sooner or later, depending upon circumstances/stress levels.

As far as "better able to rectify the situation", you don't think they deserve punishment? Are you going to implement that punishment yourself? You honestly believe they should get off scot-free for ruining multiple peoples lives by murdering their family members? Really? I just can't understand that viewpoint.

@Tim: Cops don't always make things worse, I can't imagine the amount of cynicism it requires to actually believe that and voice it as an opinion. Yes, some situations in this world are made worse by the involvement of authority, but just as many, if not more, are rectified and made better by authority, and involving the police when it comes to multiple people being murdered is one of those situations that can only become better(ie: no more people are being killed).


Yeah, maybe I wasn't clear enough in my OP. There is no justifiable reason for the multiple murders(or molestations), they are killing people for whatever sick pleasure that they are getting out of the act. It has no impact on your life(as per the original topic from the other forum), but it is, obviously, hurting multiple other people due to losing their innocent loved ones. No "Oh, well he made my life a living hell when I was younger and nearly drove me to suicide" excuse or anything like that.

However, if you wish to add reasons as to why you wouldn't turn them in, feel free to, but I would like the original question posed in the OP answered beforehand: No morally grey area, your parent/loved one is murdering people for pleasure/because they can and it's what they want to do. Do you turn them in, or let them go free and continue murdering people so long as it has no impact on your life(besides your conscience)

It's amazing how many of these comments seem to be based on 'call the cops magic'...like turning them in solves some problem.

There's been some mentions of trials at least. Anyone care to consider what fills in this blank?

I 'know' they did it..................they get convicted

Do you think the cops will just swoop someone up because you call and say 'hey there's the killer'? Think again. Calling the cops on someone is a very serious bit of business. If you believe they are potentially deadly it is a mind blowingly serious piece of business.

If you make that call you better be right...and you better hope the cops will be able to prove you are right.

Sigh...it was implied that you have concrete evidence/proof that your loved one is the person behind the serial killings. Sorry I wasn't more clear, figured that was a given. (The reason I believed it was pretty clear is, why else would you turn your loved one in for directly? I mean, you can't just think "oh, they are the type of person that would do this". No, it's because you've seen that person go into your loved ones home and not come back out again, or you found the bloody knife, or their articles of clothing stashed away in their home, or something that says "OMG they are the ones doing these killings"

Not to mention, that even if didn't have concrete evidence, but you are highly suspicious, you can still tip the police off anonymously, your loved one's not going to know you did it and come after you if they get off scot-free at the resulting investigation/trial.

You don't have to be right to make a call to the police and say you suspect something. The word suspect means

: not able to be trusted : causing feelings of doubt or suspicion. In fact, they aren't guilty until proven so, which is why they are called Suspects, or Perpetrators. Not sure where you are getting your information, but wow.

You call the police and give them your suspicion, they check it out if they have enough reason to do so. If not, they go about their business.

there you go. you have your own circumstances, just like everyone else. someone being killed might make their family sad but they might just as well not give a [censored], because that person was a horrible person and their relationship had been estranged for years. worrying about the feelings of people who aren't me and mine isn't worth the trouble.

do i think they'd deserve punishment? yes, absolutely. but i'm not going to be the one to consign them to it.

Saw them go in and not come out...you can testify to that, but not anonymously.

Found the bloody knife...the cops may be able to prove it's the weapon. They generally won't be able to get a search warrant based on an anonymous 'hey I saw this knife' and even if they do it may well have moved. If you found it and took it so you could give it to them only your testimony will tie it to the killer.

Ultimately your anonymous tip might lead to cops asking a few questions...which will leave the killer wondering how they got tipped off. Cops don't respond to anonymous tips by running right out and making an arrest or even launching a significant targeted investigation. They don't have the manpower to do much of anything based on an anonymous tip.

And if someone is looking to blow their family apart based on a 'strong suspicion' they should probably just move away and not keep in contact because that's not much of a family.

It's not the cops 'going about their business' you need to be worried about...it's the killer going about theirs.

That's a easy choice for me I would turn them in if I discovered they were a serial killer.

If I was absolutely certain that someone I knew was murdering people, and I had proof, I'm a wee bit smart enough to ask for police protection before I open my mouth.

Meh, doesn't matter, no-one has the right to take away another persons life. If my Father murdered my biological mother, I'd be happy, but I'd still turn him in for it, because that's not his right or decision to make. It is however my civic duty to inform the authorities of who killed my mother if I know.


Please just stop with the(highly annoying) deconstructions. I've said concrete evidence. Just because the examples I gave do not lend to "concrete evidence" does not make a difference in the fact that I clearly stated "Concrete Evidence", no matter how that needs to be defined.

And in a serial killer case, usually not only are multiple police agencies involved, but so are the FBI, and if an anonymous tipster gives a message stating suspicious activity, they will almost certainly assign at least one single person to go check it out, to just get a feel if it's a joke, or serious information. Doesn't matter if you say anonymously "I saw them go into X persons house and not come out", they'll do the investigation and you will never have to go to court for it. They'll either make or break the case based on their investigations. At the least, your conscience will be clear for doing something.

As far as "blowing apart a family based on strong suspicions" not being much of a family, well, again, I guess we really differ in our mindsets. I have a close relationship with my father, and love him dearly, but if I had a "Strong suspicion" that he was murdering people, I would make an effort for his actions to come to light, and I don't believe that constitutes "not much of a family" at all. It's just a respect for the law and the lives of others.

Oh.

It's pretty hard to stumble onto enough proof all in one go to make an airtight case, so I still think you are rolling the dice there.

And for the record, when you 'ask for police protection' what you are going to get is actually protective custody, in a jail. A serial murder case...you should see daylight again in a couple years, assuming that your possession of the evidence doesn't make it easier to convict you than the killer. Take lots of books either way.