MOO regarding BK's survey for his thesis as a grad student at DeSales, I just so happened to read up on what I could find about it's scope recently, and it brought up some questions for me that I'll share here for what it's worth.
This is going to be a long post, also dovetailing in some related info about academic programs, so please feel free to 'roll and scroll' if it's not of interest!
I know about the survey he posted on Reddit. I also thought I read somewhere back around January in an (online) MSM article, that he may have posted it on other forums, or maybe sent it to a few convicted criminals who were in jail maybe on a "communicate with prisoners" website, a modern day version of being pen pals kind of thing?
Or maybe that was someone else whose research he had reviewed that sent surveys directly to prisoners, and what I thought I read was that he maybe wanted to use web platforms such as Reddit to allow for a wider audience and more anonymity in the responses? I researched it and couldn't find anything from an approved source online anymore, so maybe it's not the case, so sorry no link, so just MOO.
I've read statements in MSM linked above and in the Media Thread No Discussion from his former professor / thesis advisor which indicated there was nothing unusual about his survey questions (paraphrasing here) within the context of their (DeSales) or a CJ degree program in general.
I understand what they (the former professor / thesis advisor) were getting at, that there's nothing nefarious in and of itself about the survey or questions in it in the context of a CJ program, and have no reason to doubt them in the context of their professional capacity to have an informed opinion on it, especially having known BK as a grad student in that program and having advised and collaborated with him for some amount of time.
Though IIRC, his entire Master's Degree was earned remotely online, and they never met him in person, so there is that missing piece perhaps, IMO, in their knowledge of him as a person, but maybe not germane to the survey in itself.
In an interesting parallel, but maybe offsides a bit from the survey, he earned his High School (HS) diploma without doing any learning on the campus of his HS in his sophomore, junior, or senior years in the same school where his parents both worked at the time.
In his sophomore and junior years of HS he attended an off campus Technical School where he spent some time (his sophomore year) learning about the HVAC trade, but then dropped out of that course of study, and studied other subjects as a junior. Then he spent his senior year attending classes entirely remotely and online. So he earned his HS diploma from his school with 3 years of no on campus classes, and the last year of no in person classes.
Bryan Kohberger Completed High School Online for Reasons That Remain Unclear: Report
Back to BK's survey for his Master's thesis, what still stands out to me is maybe considered a "perception issue" about such a survey on such a topic by such an individual being "of note", and which I think can be explained in the context of some questions that begin with the words "what if?"
For example:
"What if" he garnered some info from the survey responses about how it actually feels to commit a crime, "in the heat of the moment", as it were, that meant more to him personally than academically speaking ? Because they were in answer to his personally authored questions, rather than someone else's set of questions ? IMO, reading a set of survey questions and answers someone else wrote and were responded to in that context of that study or thesis "field work" would not have the same oomph as my very own set of Q & As.
If I had seen his survey on Reddit, I would have had to wonder "who's the man behind the mask?" asking these kinds of questions, and more importantly why?
Just speaking from my own experience here, I designed, wrote, and conducted a survey in college for my thesis with some collaboration from another student who had achieved a higher level of academic prowess than I (they already had several related degrees) and our professor/advisor's oversight and approval.
We all designed, wrote, and conducted our own surveys in my degree program. It was required as what we called the "proveout", and was a key tool in refining our arguments and proofs of our theories and assumptions that were the basis for our thesis.
The survey questions were entirely unique to the underlying topic of our thesis. Our professor/advisor made us toss out any of our initial proposed "3 - 5" thesis topics we had sketched out in the narrowing down process to just 1, if they were too similar to other work in our field of study by other students or researchers. They had to have a premise that was unique.
Back to BK and his survey, I get that overall it was standard in his program and field of study as his professor stated. I don't know how they do it at DeSales, maybe it's completely different than at the universities I attended, but we had to personalize our thesis if it was similar enough to a common theme in our area of study so that it was unique, as I said.
What I might have lingering questions about is where the overarching topic of "feelings" criminals felt when committing a crime -- and if IIRC, paraphrasing here, "how they approached the victim and how they felt when using a certain approach" - e.g., snuck up on them versus face to face attack -- came into being the main, or one of the main, aspects of his survey, during his collaboration with the other 2 people.
Did BK prepare a number of possible survey thesis statements on topics in CJ he was interested in, and they were vetted and narrowed down with his collaborators/advisors to the one he proved out with assistance from the survey results (as many or few as he got, IIRC, less than 10?)?
Or did he just propose the 1 survey topic -- asking criminal's about their feelings during the commission of a crime -- and was given the go ahead by his advisory team because it was within the scope of his program and of interest at large to society in terms of psychology, which he got an undergrad degree in?
Or was it truly unique in that the "feelings" angle of the questions had not been asked before by someone else in the literature available to him or in a survey, and he was particularly interested in that aspect of the human psychology of people who commit crimes -- their feelings as they did the crime?
And only if so, that the real answer to the last question is yes, IMO, it seems reasonable to "put 2 and 2 together" and get 4, which is to speculate whether the questions he asked criminals to answer in his survey the year before he committed his own crimes, allegedly, may have been of import to him personally in addition or hand in hand with being of import to him as a current student of CJ/former student of Psychology.
Sorry for such a long post! It took a lot of verbiage to frame these questions and explain the reasons for my lingering speculation that possibly his thesis survey questions:
- May not have been written "in a blind as a CJ scholar", and
- May have had some personally informative aspects with special meaning to him about criminal's feelings, if he is the killer, because at the time, he was a "budding criminal", IMO.
All of that said, I should now admit my own discomfort or bias in not being able to relate to someone being interested in delving into the intimate details of how criminals feel when they plan and/or don't plan and/or commit their crimes because it's kind of a no-brainer to me.
They're obviously having strong feelings to let go of their inhibitions and/or better judgment and commit the crime, no?
And feeling a rush of adrenaline and excitement or a "high" from letting go of their inhibitions and acting on their impulses, no?
So whatever the triggering feelings (e.g., vengeance, hatred, jealousy, greed), it seems sort of obvious to me they would feel satisfaction and relief and probably some sick sense of glory that they did what they wanted to do.
And hand in hand with that probably goes the next phase of "the high", which IMO would be "can I get away with it?" and the glee they may feel if they can, and the worry they may feel about getting caught if they can't.
Maybe I'm missing something or that's a bit too trite, to presume it's pretty elemental, what a criminal feels when they commit a crime, but IMO, it's as old as time.
All MOO.
