Straight Talk about Criminals

Understanding and Treating Antisocial Individuals

By (author) Stanton E. Samenow

Publication date:

01 May 1997

Length of book:

325 pages

Publisher

Jason Aronson, Inc.

ISBN-13: 9781568218755

Is there a genetic predisposition to crime? Should mental illness be taken into account? Do family and social environments have a role? Do people become abusers because they have been abused? How can people who do terrible things consider themselves good people? What should someone involved in a relationship with a criminal know? Stanton Samenow, co-author of the widely respected three-volume study of The Criminal Personality, has collected the questions posed by audiences during his speaking engagements of the past twenty-eight years about causes, characteristics, and treatments of antisocial behavior. Now he draws on his research and clinical experience with hundreds of men, women, and children to offer no-frills answers that embody his informed perspectives on some of the toughest policy issues facing individuals, institutions, and governments today. A Jason Aronson Book

Chapter 1 The Criminal Personality: An Introduction
Chapter 2 Criminal Behavior Is a Result Not of Environment but of an Individual's Choices
Chapter 3 Environmental Factors Do Not Cause Crime
Chapter 4 Bad Parenting Does Not Cause Crime
Chapter 5 People Do Not Become Abusers and Criminals Because They Were Abused
Chapter 6 Biological/Genetic Contributions to Criminality Need Not Preordain Incarceration
Chapter 7 The Alleged Increase in Crime: It Is Not Human Nature but Laws, Law Enforcement, and Deterrents that Change
Chapter 8 Individuals with a Criminal Mind View Life Differently Than Do Responsible People
Chapter 9 The Criminal Mind Exists Independent of Particular Laws, Culture, or Customs
Chapter 10 The Criminal's After-the-Fact Excuses Rarely Reflect His True Motives
Chapter 11 Criminals, Not Drugs, Cause Crime
Chapter 12 Criminals Are Neither Mentally Ill Nor Victims of Addictions
Chapter 13 Schools and Crime: Schools Must Combat Crime, Not Coddle Offenders
Chapter 14 Criminals Can Change
Chapter 15 Helping a Criminal Change
Chapter 16 Agents of Change
Chapter 17 Potential Criminal Patterns Can Be Identified Early and Preventive Steps Taken
Chapter 18 Directions for Social Policy
Chapter 19 Offbeat Questions
Chapter 20 Personal Questions
Chapter 21 A Final Note
Chapter 22 Appendix 1: An Overview of The Criminal Personality
Chapter 23 Appendix 2: Recommended Reading
Chapter 24 Index

Dr. Samenow knows more about the criminal personality than anyone I know. The 'straight talk about criminals' he gives us, after spending more than twenty-seven years interviewing, evaluating, and treating men, women, and children convicted of a variety of crimes, is a must-read for anyone working with convicted felons as well as for the lay person with questions about the criminal personality and how it got to be that way.