Take these people of the streets, people who can torture animals like that are dangerous. It basically requires a complete lack of empathy and conscience. The only thing that keeps people like that in check are consequences. We put them in jail for torturing animals, they don’t like being in jail, so they’ll refrain from putting their wife or kids in a wood chucker later on in life.

There are lots and lots of psychopaths around us. We only notice the obvious ones that go off the rails and make the news, but there are plenty of functional psychopaths that play being human. Politicians, managers, cops, lawyers. Jobs and positions with power attract them, because they crave control.

The vast majority of them do not commit crimes. Mostly because they don’t want to deal with the hassle criminal prosecution entails. They don’t have to hurt others, they just don’t care if they do as long as it’s advantageous to them and doesn’t come back to bite them. How many people are sociopaths/psychopaths etc? About 5-10% are some numbers I have seen thrown around.