Inside the Criminal Mind

Understanding the dark side of human conduct

by Dr. Stanton E. Samenow, Ph.D.

Typing Offenders by Crime—Concealing More than Revealing?

Typing offenders by crime rarely helps understanding who the offender is.

Published on November 16, 2011 by Stanton E. Samenow, Ph.D. in Inside the Criminal Mind

When a man is arrested and convicted of rape, he is known as a rapist and a sex offender. When an individual is convicted of distributing narcotics, he is known as a drug dealer. However, what a person is arrested for constitutes, in most instances, the tip of the iceberg. In more than 40 years of interviewing offenders, every rapist whom I have interviewed has committed crimes other than rape -- e.g., nonsexual assaults, theft. Even typing a person as a "white collar" offender may not be accurate. I have interviewed white-collar individuals who have committed acts of domestic violence, alcohol abuse, and drug abuse.

It is true that offenders have tastes and preferences in crime. The white-collar offender looks down on the violent street criminal as crude and as sharing nothing in common with him. The guy who resorts to force ("muscle") may look down on someone not so inclined as "sissy," "lame," or "weak."

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The key to understanding the psychological makeup of offenders is not so much the type of crime that they are known for, but the thinking processes that all offenders share in common, no matter what criminal activity they engage in.

Power and control, shutting off deterrents from conscious thought, the view of the self as unique, the lack of a concept of injury to others -- these and many other thinking patterns are evidenced by offenders who, otherwise, appear to be very different from one another.

In short, the crime for which a person is arrested represents only the tip of an iceberg of irresponsibility and criminality that, in more cases than not, has yet come to light.

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Dr. Samenow will next post a blog after Christmas.