I don't know, I think parents can provide a strong foundation if they are attentive in terms of compassion and discipline and if not parents, some other adult figure (thinks of my grandparents)
People spend too much time trying to find a simple solution to every problem. "Oh, genes are the key, no, evolution, or perhaps it's Satan." It's not that simple, there are a lot of complicated factors involved at the same time that need to be looked at...

(Also, *in the middle of reading this article* this sounds a bit odd, but do these folks ever take into consideration that a lot of people who do things like this have been picked on in school? I think I read someone the Columbine killers were picked on a lot. Poor attachment, like this boy in this book I'm reading that raped and murdered two girls who had RAD like symptoms and had been left in his crib alone for 12 hours as a baby every day, plus a tendency to be aggressive, out of step with people AND being viciously teased every single day in school could totally build up a lot of aggression in a child that could lead to something like that. Do folks ever consider that maybe people need to learn to stop teasing people because they are different? It reminds me of some Sally Jesse Raphael show I saw in high school with kids that were teased every day over stupid things like clothes, but I didn't think they were the ones with the problems, but the people who felt the need to attack them. But it's easier to make an individual person wear name brand clothes or something than to tell whole groups of people to lay off of them)
I'm sorry to ramble like this... But I am very shy. I think the times I lived with my mother had something to do with my mild social anxiety disorder as she'd often use the belt on me in a southern old school fashion. i don't think pushing a shy child to be more social would get rid of their shyness and that people who write these articles need to stop assuming that shyness or difference or quirkiness is what causes things like this. They tend to spend too much time focusing on the wrong things and ignoring all the things they should pay attention too...
I wrote too much. I think it's a mixture of all of those factors. That parents, if they can attach firmly to their children and be an example to them of anger management, control, self respect so that when they get into the large society, schools and the like which is a jungle, they have a foundation to go on. Even if they might have a violence gene, they can be taught at an early age that such things are unacceptable, but it's hard because our culture has violence and aggression engrained into it. It's practically apart of American history...
I'm sorry to go on and on so much.....

As a believer in Christ, I must hold fast to the Bible and BELIEVE GOD! God's Word tells us to train up a child in the way they should go and when they are old, they will not depart from it.

I believe that God is BIGGER than RAD! I must not fear RAD and that is hard to do when I have seen some of the outcomes. I must believe, "For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord"! He doesn't want to harm us, HE LOVES us and Our children more than we do. Our God is a God of Hope and healing.

I don't know why some kids never turn around, but God sure does. Is Rad hard and horrible to live with? YEP! But God is still bigger and we are not without hope if we believe in Him. I don't believe that ANYONE is without hope. That is the essence of the Christian life. I must parent my daughter and do all I can to turn her around. If she NEVER turn around, I did all could do and must be at peace with myself about it. Maybe a child will turn around as an adult or maybe not.

I see so many parallels between RAD and Christ as I have walked this road. God NEVER gave up on me and I can't give up on my child. We must sacrifice ourselves at times to heal our kids and even then there are no absolutes this child is going to turn around. But we do it anyway! We risk loving them anyway, even if they never love us back. Hard to do I know! God does it every day!

Sorry to post again, but I swear this book The Boy Who Was Raised as a Dog is one of the most useful books I've ever read!
This guy GETS IT! He totally understands, and it's so cool to read something by someone who gets it.
There was this one family that adopted a child from Russian that was 7 but regressed to 3 years and was teased in school, but he had supportive parents that tried to help him
This guy went to the school in front of the boy's class and explained to them why he was different and how his brain had developed the way it had because he'd spend three years of his life in a crib in Russian with no one to hug or comfort him. He encouraged them not to make fun of him and they helped him instead!
I wish schools would do things like that, encourage children not to pick on marginalized kids, and if a person is socially isolated they could have at least have one person to confide in and care about them and help them instead of making them more marginallized.
Then they'd be less depressed, less likely to put all their rage and frustration inward and have it manesfest itself in violent ways and planning.
It's interesting how in Japan there are boys who will lock themselves in their room from being bullied and picked on. Here a lot of these marginalized kids play violent games and represent themselves as the hero in their own world. Here violence equals the power they can't have in the real world.
It's depressing, but society needs to change so much. There's a universal social sickness that needs to be dealt with somehow. And one step is for people to become more compassionate and connect to each other again. Or at least they can counter the social sickness by teaching that compassion is not a weakness....

I think it's very telling that Cho signed in in class as ?. Kids referred to him as the question mark kid. I think that says a LOT about his self-concept and self-esteem