The New Evil: Understanding the Emergence of Modern Violent Crime

Michael H. Stone, MD · Gary Brucato, PhD

Mar 2019 · Tantor Media Inc · Narrated by Charles Constant

About this audiobook

A chilling follow-up to the popular true crime book The Anatomy of Evil. Revisiting Dr. Michael Stone's groundbreaking 22-level Gradations of Evil Scale, a hierarchy of evil behavior first introduced in the book The Anatomy of Evil, Stone and Dr. Gary Brucato, a fellow violence and serious psychopathology expert, here provide even more detail, using dozens of cases to exemplify the categories along the continuum. The New Evil also presents compelling evidence that, since a cultural tipping-point in the 1960's, certain types of violent crime have emerged that in earlier decades never or very rarely occurred. The authors examine the biological and psychiatric factors behind serial killing, serial rape, torture, mass and spree murders, and other severe forms of violence. They persuasively argue that, in at least some cases, a collapse of moral faculties contributes to the commission of such heinous crimes, such that "evil" should be considered not only a valid area of inquiry, but, in our current cultural climate, an imperative one. They consider the effects of new technologies and sociological, cultural, and historical factors since the 1960's that may have set the stage for "the new evil."

Ratings and reviews

This book does an excellent job of categorizing the different groups of violent criminals so it is easier to understand what is often inconceivable. The amount of research and study that went into this book is evident from start to finish.

About the author

Michael H. Stone, MD, is professor of clinical psychiatry at the Columbia College of Physicians and Surgeons. He is the author of ten books, including Personality Disorders: Treatable and Untreatable, and over two hundred professional articles and book chapters.

Gary Brucato, PhD, a clinical psychologist and researcher in the areas of violence, psychosis, and other serious psychopathology, is the assistant director of the Center of Prevention and Evaluation at the New York State Psychiatric Center/Columbia University Medical Center.

Charles Constant is an actor whose professional storytelling career began at the age of thirteen, when he became an Actors' Equity Association apprentice. An accomplished audiobook narrator, Charles has recorded many popular titles, including How to Win at the Sport of Business by Mark Cuban. He lives in Los Angeles.