by Stanton Samenow
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Product Description
In 1984, this groundbreaking book presented a chilling profile of the criminal mind that shattered long-held myths about the sources of and cures for crime. Now, with the benefit of twenty years' worth of additional knowledge and insight, Stanton Samenow offers a completely updated edition of his classic work, including fresh perceptions into crimes in the spotlight today, from stalking and domestic violence to white-collar crime and political terrorism.
Dr. Samenow's three decades of working with criminals have reaffirmed his argument that factors such as poverty, divorce, and media violence do not cause criminality. Rather, as Samenow documents here, all criminals share a particular mind-set--often evident in childhood--that is disturbingly different from that of a responsible citizen.
While new types of crime have grown more prevalent, or at least more visible to the public eye--from spousal abuse to school shootings--little has changed in terms of our approach to dealing with crime. Rehabilitation programs based on the assumption that society is more to blame for crime than the criminal, an assumption for which a causal link has yet to be established, have proved to be grossly inadequate. Crime continues to invade every aspect of our lives, criminal court dockets and prisons are oppressively overcrowded and expensive, and recidivism rates continue to escalate.
To embark on a truly corrective program, we must begin with the clear understanding that the criminal chooses crime; he chooses to reject society long before society rejects him. The criminal values people only to the extent that he can use them for his own self-serving ends; he does not justify his actions to himself. Only by "habilitating" the criminal, so that he sees himself realistically and develops responsible patterns of thought, can we change his behavior.
It is vital that we know who the criminal is and how and why he acts differently from responsible citizens. From that understanding can come reasonable, compassionate, and effective solutions.
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Average Customer Review:
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful:
 A classic on the criminal mind, 2008-03-26
Great summery on criminal thinking. Much easier to read then original case studies were, but less information if researching for serious project.
1 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
 Horrible, misleading, irresponsible , 2008-01-04
This author has written a book that emphasizes an 'us and them' mentality as if criminals are completely different than other human beings. In his first chapter, he writes that no definitive factors have been pinned down in regards to what makes a person into a criminal. He mentions how others have credited biological, psychological and sociological factors but dismisses them, which is astounding in and of itself, without any intelligent reasoning. In his second chapter, he starts by writing that criminals come from all social backgrounds and all different type home environments. He has no clue. I am a clinical psychoogist who has worked in maximum security prisons and worked closely with many dangerous people. The VAST MAJORITY come from terrible backgrounds (poverty, broken homes, chaos, abuse, neglect, ganglife, crime-ridden neighborhoods) and for the author to dismiss this important finding is completely irresponsible and actually prevents people who geniunely want to understand criminal behavior from doing so. It perpetuates a 'these people are evil and they do bad things such as blah, blah, blah' - He emphasizes phenomenology and descriptions of what criminals do but illuminates virtually nothing in the process about what makes them who they are. He continuously emphasizes how all criminals have a choice and that they simply make the wrong choice to terrorize humans without any intelligent thesis to describe why they make bad decisions and how it's extremely difficult for felons to make what most people outside of correctional facilities consider 'good' decisions/choices. He has no understanding of unconscious processes at work in terms of criminal behavior. This might as well have been written by an FBI profiler who just describes what he sees like a short-sighted, dense behaviorist without an in-depth understanding of the real reasons why people do bad things. He is clearly biased against developmental factors and if he had ever spent any time in a real prison, which he hasn't, he would learn very quickly that there is more to a person than behavior and cognition. He oversimplifies, distorts, and ignores important contributing factors. If you like to maintain a narrow-minded 'us and them,' 'good vs. evil' mentality that serves no useful purpose except to promote ignorance, then read this book. It is awful and it's unbelievable that this quack has given talks on criminal behavior to audiences at all. We already know criminals do bad things and that they can be vicious and ruthless; the important question: why? is never adequately addressed and answered and, to make matters worse, he clouds the truth. I'm appalled that this man calls himself a clinical psychologist, although I'm not too surprised as so many other mental health professionals have begun to deny the primary contributor to criminal behavior - terrible childhoods - as it is not en vogue or in keeping with the fads of CBT and short-term, cost-effective treatments and their related theories - CBT has its place in short-term treatment and for reducing symptoms but doesn't compare or compete with developmental and psychoanalytic theory in terms of describing why people become who they are and why they do what they do, especially people labeled as criminals.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
Very interesting book with some very good concepts, 2007-08-04
Love it or hate it, Dr. Samenow hits it on the head when he says that someone with a criminal mindset must learn to accept responsibility for their own actions or they will never be able to lead a truly productive and crime-free life.
I also think that he has it right when he says that criminals, or anyone for that matter, are constantly doing a balancing test. We each do a risk/benefit analysis for our decisions, no matter how small that decision may seem. What makes someone a criminal, is the fact that they make decisions that manipulate and/or harm others for their own benefit. While this is something that everyone does from time to time, criminals seem to do it constantly.
No matter what brought them to this pattern of decision making (poverty, genetics, a lust for excitement, etc.), the way to reverse it is to make them realize that they are responsible to change that pattern.
3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
A lump of Immalleable Clay, 2007-05-15
Was the despicable criminal and murder spree on April 16, 2007 at Virginia Tech University by Seung-Hui-Cho because of his gender, race, parental upbringing, psychotic inclinations, or simply by the acts against him by those around him?
None of the above, inclusive and or exclusive of either one of the purported reasons, if you read the theories and analytical presentations author Stanton E. Samenow, Ph.D., enumerates in his book titled "Inside the Criminal Mind."
According to the author, it is a misconception the person inclined to be a criminal is because of his or her parental upbringing, poverty, influential friends, mother, father, family and neighborhood. In his book, "Inside the Criminal Mind," the author states, "Criminals cause crime - not bad neighborhoods, inadequate parents, television, schools, or unemployment. Crime resides in the minds of human beings and is not caused by social conditions."
The author also discounts the theory of a psychotic mind, "...psychological theory, in its current state, is more misleading than illuminating in explaining why people become criminals. Far from being a formless lump of clay, the criminal shapes others more than they do him."
"...criminals come from a wide variety of backgrounds - from the inner city, suburbia, rural areas and small towns and from many religious, racial or ethnic groups. They may grow up in closely knit families, broken homes, or orphanages. They may be grade school dropouts or college graduates, unemployed drifters or corporate executives. In most cases, they have brothers, sisters, and next-door neighbors who grew up under similar circumstances but did not become criminals."
Thus the gestalt of "Inside the Criminal Mind," sets out to show criminals know right from wrong and the criminal is not the product of external sources. Criminal behavior is the product of the individuals' way of thinking.
The author Samenow says, "I shall expose the myths about why criminals commit crimes. I shall draw a picture for you of the personality of the criminal just as the police artist draws a picture of his face from a description. I shall describe how criminals think, how they defend their crimes to others, and how they exploit programs that are developed to help them. I shall discuss what these people are like as children for, with systematic study; it is possible to identify at least some children who are predisposed to criminality."
Looking back and thinking of the video Seung-Hui Cho made which was televised to the world, he did exactly what author Samenow illustrates in his book which was publish way before Seung-Hui Cho came into being. The criminal never takes responsibility for his acts and blames everyone and everything for his shortcomings and worse yet, for his criminal mind. Those of us who saw the video and were not aware how the criminal and his mind thinks, felt a sense of guilt and culpability for the despicable crimes he committed. However, we did not mold him to be or do what he did, but he molded us to think we were the ones responsible for his morally reprehensible and wretched act.
I strongly recommend "Inside the Criminal Mind." Everyone, parents, teachers, administrators, people at large should read it to better understand the mind of a criminal.
Reference the coming of age in the following novel:
The Kids on the Block
0 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
Inside The Self-Serving Mind, 2007-05-13
This book is facile and superficial. It reveals very little about the criminal mind while exposing much about "the pyschology industry".
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