Concept of the Month

Concept of the Month -- January 2012

A Note on the Criminal's "Suggestibility"

People who live a criminal lifestyle appear extremely suggestible to their equally wayward peers, especially during adolescence and young adulthood. An examination of school records reveals that teachers describe many of these individuals as suggestible -- followers, emulators of the bad examples set by particular classmates. If one student acts up in class, another copies him. If a student skips school, others follow. Repeated imitation of the bad example means that the individual strays further and further from his more conforming peers. Thus, seemingly without a backbone, he appears quite suggestible -- i.e., easily led and corrupted. His marked vulnerability to suggestion eventually leads to his downfall. At least, this is how things may appear!

The reality is that almost everyone is suggestible to something. However, what one person is open to another person shuns. There is the individual who, for sheer excitement, uses any illegal drug offered at a party. Attending the very same party, another youth, upon discovering drugs on the scene, immediately leaves. He has no desire to be anywhere near drugs, much less experiment with them. He is not in the least suggestible along these lines. This is because drugs and all they represent are totally antithetical to his objectives.

can be highly suggestible to some things but not to others. Offered a scoop of coffee ice cream, I am unlikely to resist. In a Las Vegas hotel, I don't even pause at the roulette wheel, black jack table, or dollar slot machines. Touring an exotic Asian destination, I see appetizing food being prepared and sold on the streets. But I am not suggestible to purchasing it from the vendor because the thought of getting sick is a powerful deterrent.

To characterize a person as suggestible or as a "follower" says little about him. If we truly understand his personality, then we have a sound basis for determining in what manner he might be suggestible. For example, the individual with a criminal personality is not open to suggestions that he save money, budget it, and seek the best price for an item he desires. Quite the contrary. If he decides he must have something, he is suggestible to any means to acquire it. To his way of thinking, justifies the ends.

Past Concepts of the Month

2011

September-October: The Criminal's Shutoff of Fear
July-August: Criminals Do Learn from Past Experience
June: The Offender’s Parents as Victim: The New Film “Beautiful Boy”
April-May: Literarcy and Recidivism
March: Bullying: A Sign of a Developing Criminal Personality?
February: An Attention Deficit Disorder is not Predisposing to Criminality
December 2010/January: The Criminal's Tactic of Silence

2010

November: The Criminal's Misuse of Alcoholics Anonymous, Narcotics Anonymous and Other Self-Help Groups
October: The Myth of the Out of Character Crime
September: "Sincerity" versus "Conviction" in an Offender Who Wants to Change
July/August: The Criminal's Pursuit of Control for Its Own Sake
May/June: Do Prisons Really Make Criminals Worse?
March/April: A Note on Religiosity and the Criminal
February: The John Edwards/Tiger Woods "Phenomenon"
January: The Changeability of the Criminal

2009

December: The Search for a "Motive" for a Crime
November: The Myth of the Street Gang as a "Family Substitute"
October: Part 1: "I think it; therefore, it's true" -- a thinking error of the criminal
September: Mind-altering Substances as Facilitators of Whatever the Offender Seeks
August: The Criminal and Control
July: The Criminal's Lying: "Compulsion" or "Habit"?
June: Identifying Thinking Errors in Child Custody Cases
May: Narcissism and the Antisocial Personality Disorder -- a Lot in Common
April: Lies- "A Taint of Death"
March: The Criminal Who Wants To Change -- Where's the Excitement?
January/February: The "Conscience" of the Perpetrator of Fraud or, How a Beloved and Trusted Person Preys Upon Friends, Closest Associates, and Long Time Acquaintances

2008

December: A "Non-concept" but Information, Nonetheless, for December...
November: The All or Nothing Thinking of the Criminal
October: The Argument that there is "Larceny in Every Soul" is Hollow
September: When "Rehab" and Alcoholics Anonymous is Not Enough
August: The Alleged Relationship Between Attention Deficit Disorder and Criminality
July: Peer Pressure as a Causal Factor in Criminal Behavior?
May/June: "Errors in Thinking" Apply to the Alcoholic or Problem Drinker
April: Early Identification of Antisocial Behavior - Part I
March: Does the Criminal "Burn Out" with Age?
February: More on the Role of the Social Environment
January: Does Prison Make a Person a "Worse Criminal"?

2007
November/December: The Male Criminal's Choice of Women
October: An Alternative View of "Compulsive" Gambling
September: The Primacy of Thinking
August: Dick Diver from F. Scott Fitzgerald's "Tender Is the Night": A comment on a 1920's narcissist and today's celebrity narcissists
July: Another "Addiction"?
June: Musings about City Safety - USA and Spain
May: Virginia Tech: Can a Future School Shooter be Identified?
April: White Collar Crime and Street Crime: Similar Thought Processes
March: More on "Addiction" as a "Disease"
February: The Criminal and Suicidal Thinking
January: "I think, therefore I feel": The Primacy of Thinking
2006
December: The Overuse and Misuse of the Word "Addiction"
November: The Social Environment Does Not "Cause" Crime
October: "Anna Karenina" -- A Study in Character
September: The Concept of "Nonarrestable" Criminality
August: A Note on "Copycat" Violent Crimes
July: How "Errors in Thinking" Apply to Pedophiles
June: Suggestibility and the Juvenile Offender
May: Part I: Anger and the Criminal
April: An Expanded Concept of "Criminality"
March: Neurotic Features in the Individual with an Antisocial Personality Disorder
February: Sporadic Remorse Elevates the Criminal's View of Himself as a Good Person
December05/January: Can A Criminal Learn to be Empathic? -- Parts I and II
2005

November: "Compulsive" Gambling: Mental Disorder or Irresponsibile Choices?
September/October: Opportunistic Looting as in the Aftermath of Hurricane Katrina
August: "Kleptomania": A Reality or a Psychiatric Invention?
July: "Love" -- The Criminal's Experience is Extremely Limited
June: The Problem with "Anger Management"
May: Religion in the Criminal's Good Opinion of Himself/Herself
April: From Maudlin Sentiment to Savage Brutality
March: The Use of the Offender's Language is Counterproductive in Interviewing and Counseling
February: The Concept of "Confrontation" in Helping Offenders Change
January: "I think, therefore it is so": A Costly Error of Thinking
2004
2003
2002
December 2004 - A Clarification about the Alleged Causal Connection between the Larger Social Environment and Criminal Behavior
November 2004 - Does the Criminal Experience Remorse?
October 2004 - Thinking in Extremes
September 2004 - Peer Pressure
August 2004--Reading and Poetry Do Not a Reformed Criminal Make
July 2004 -- What the Drug-Using Criminal Really Means by a "High"
June 2004 -- The Criminal's Anger Results from Fear
May 2004 -- Typing Offenders by the Crime for Which They Are Arrested -- Concealing More than Revealed?
April 2004 -- The Criminal Does Learn from Experience
March 2004 -- The Criminal's Shutting off Conscience
February 2004 -- The Criminal's Lack of a Concept of Interdependence
January 2004 -- The Criminal and "Low Self-Esteem"
January 2003 -- Control: For a worthy aim or for its own sake?
March 2003 -- Bipolar Disease or the Ups and Downs of the Antisocial Person's Unrealistic Expectations?
April 2003 -- "Out of Character Crime" is Not Out of Character
May 2003 -- The Armed Bank Robber and the Corporate Crook are One and the Same
June 2003 -- Drug Addiction: A Caution about the Disease Concept
July 2003 -- Dependence versus Exploitation
August 2003 -- Drugs as Escape or as Facilitators?
September 2003 -- Criminality and Suggestibility
October 2003 -- The Futility of Focusing on Causes of Criminal Behavior When Evaluating and Counseling Adult or Juvenile Offenders
November 2003 -- The Criminal Knows Right From Wrong
December 2003 -- Can A Criminal Learn From Experience?
May 2002 -- Working to Eliminate Anger
June 2002 -- Self Esteem: What is it?
July 2002 -- Can An Agent of Change be Both a Counselor and a "Cop"?
August 2002 -- Chronic Drug Abuse -- For "Escape" or Excitement?
September 2002 -- "Respect" in the Street Sense versus Respect in the Responsible World
October 2002 -- Power and Control -- Legitimate or Not?
November 2002 -- "Addiction" -- the disease concept in treating criminals
December 2002 -- Does the Criminal Have a Conscience?

Return to Dr. Samenow's Homepage