Caylee Anthony case -- Is the family still an important part ----
My own thinking isn't coming from an "ideal family" kind of thing. I think there's a difference between "ideal family" and "normal family". All kinds of families are normal, and all families have their problems. There are things about either individuals or families, though, that go outside what is pretty well established (in, say, the fields of psychiatry/psychology) as "within normal". What's "normal" is sometimes be tied to a person's age-versus-maturity; and sometimes, for one reason or another, a kid from even a normal family won't mature "on schedule". (One cause of that is the fourteen-old kid who tries drugs, get involved too seriously with them, gets involved with a social circle where the only thing anyone is interested in is drugs, and spends x number of years when he'd otherwise be maturing "on hold" and on drugs. The kid might have gotten more involved with drugs for some reason other than his family. Some social/school issues can make a kid unhappy, insecure, and in need of escaping, belonging, or feeling cool.
So, the kid who's been a "problem kid" since he was fourteen can get into bigger and bigger problems (like having a baby too young), and you can end up with a young mother whose emotional maturation process has been stunted, is really on "emotionally fourteen", doesn't have the patience, protective instincts, or ability to do what "regular" mothers of infants and toddlers know they need to (like control themselves, for example); and a whole continuing cycle/downward spiral that brings the person farther and farther away from family and "the mainstream" of normal living, and puts him/her deeper and deeper in with a circle of people who are bad/misguided as, or worse than, he is. It doesn't help that daughters from the best families can, for one reason or another, end up with loser or psycho boyfriends, who can be a big influence on even otherwise and generally "regular" young women.
Personally, I don't any normal (even not ideal) family will turn out a sociopath kid. I think it takes something serious to be wrong for a kid to be a serious sociopath. Maybe it doesn't have to be as seriously wrong for a kid to be a "borderline sociopath", but I think there's still something seriously lacking in the parents/ family in order for that to happen.
In an example like the one above, though, I don't think it necessarily takes a sociopath to, say, lose control of a temper and end up unintentionally hurting a child more seriously than s/he thought s/he would.
I knew a little girl who grew up to be a teen who did some things (serious things) that made those who knew her wonder if she was a sociopath. Having known her since she was placed in a (good and loving) foster home at two or so (and after neglect and abuse), I'd always had the feeling there were things (intangible things) she needs and wanted from the people around her that she wasn't getting (because nobody seemed to be able to figure out what those things were, and because she was too little to be able to figure out, and voice, those things for herself). Sometimes, I didn't really think she was a sociopath after all. I'd think she was a hurt little girl who put on a tougher, colder, front in the interest of her own dignity.
So, I do think what goes on (or doesn't) in families matters. I'm not watching the case, but I can see that defense as either a way to try to prove reasonable doubt or else as a completely plausible scenario. I suppose where it may most matter is in a case where abuse could make the difference between, say, the death penalty and no death penalty (if the verdict is guilty).
What would be really horrible is if this individual really is a sociopath who's willing to let those kinds of accusations be in the air about innocent parents. Equally bad, or worse, would be rotten/sociopath/sick parents who would be willing to let their daughter get, say, the death penalty for something they did.
Either way, I think it's a case for, and lesson in, getting away from, and staying away from, any family members who show any signs of being "seriously off" before one ends up with his own life in a big, horrible, disaster.
Also either way, I do think what did or didn't go on in the family can be very relevant. So, with regard to the question about whether there are benefits in belonging to a family, I go back to the thing, "it depends on the family" (whether that "family" is made up of nobody but one's mother, a couple of parents, or a whole group of nearby family members).
)
(Hmm. My post seems to have turned ridiculously long for no reason other than pondering yours.
Sometimes we never know when the urge to "ponder" will hit. )
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