The Futility of Focusing on "Causes" when Evaluating and Treating Offenders

The human mind tries to make sense of experience. Thus the "why" question is often at the forefront. Why did the person do what he did? Why is he the way he is?

Trying to determine motivation for a particular crime may be worthwhile, even if elusive, in certain circumstances. But focusing on why a person is the way he is, why he has engaged in a life of crime is an exercise in futility and actually turns out to be a barrier to helping offenders change.

Anything and everything has been cited as a cause of crime. The list is endless: poverty, affluence, abuse, violence in the media, lead in one's bones, diet, and even factors such as physical unattractiveness and global warming. (Yes, I have articles documenting all of these in my files.)

There are many aspects of the human condition that we do not know the cause or causes of. That does not mean that we are powerless to address those conditions.

Offenders offer innumerable excuses for their conduct. In doing so they render themselves victims rather than the victimizers that they are. One man remarked, "If I didn't have enough excuses for crime before psychiatry, I surely have enough now."

Even if we knew the cause or causes of criminal behavior, that in no way would guarantee that we would be better equipped to help the individual change. Looking for causes is diversionary and largely a waste of time.

We need to leave the causal enigma on the shelf in working with offenders and focus on their thinking and on the choices they have made during the course of their lives. That will be far more fruitful than endless conjecturing about causes.