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Stanton E. SamenowPh.D. · 1941–2023

Essays & blog posts

Browse the essay archive (2002–2014), or read Inside the Criminal Mind at Psychology Today ↗ (2015–2023).

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New Paperback Edition of Inside the Criminal Mind

A Tactic: The Vagueness of the Criminal

Pray at Ten O'Clock, Rob at Noon

The Criminal Does Learn from Experience

Anger: The Metastasizing of a Cancer

Oppositional, Defiant Youngster Destroy Families

The Criminal's Idiosyncratic Use of Language

The Criminal's Procrastination and Default

James Patterson: Explaining a Supercriminal as a Product of a Broken Home

A Social Agenda Trumps the Reality of Character in Richard Wright's "Rite of Passage"

"Depression" and the Criminal

The Criminal's Apparent Envy of the Responsible Person

Criminals Do Learn from Experience

A Note on the Criminal's Lack of Empathy

A Burden or an Opportunity?

The Criminal's Sentimentality Does not Translate into Empathy

A Note on the Criminal's "Suggestibility"

The Criminal's Shutoff of Fear

Criminals Do Learn from Past Experience

The Offender’s Parents as Victim: The New Film “Beautiful Boy”

Literarcy and Recidivism

Bullying: A Sign of a Developing Criminal Personality?

An Attention Deficit Disorder is not Predisposing to Criminality

The Criminal's Tactic of Silence

The Criminal's Misuse of Alcoholics Anonymous, Narcotics Anonymous and Other Self-Help Groups

The Myth of the Out of Character Crime

"Sincerity" versus "Conviction" in an Offender Who Wants to Change

The Criminal's Pursuit of Control for Its Own Sake

Do Prisons Really Make Criminals Worse?

A Note on Religiosity and the Criminal

The John Edwards/Tiger Woods "Phenomenon"

The Changeability of the Criminal

The Search for a "Motive" for a Crime

The Myth of the Street Gang as a "Family Substitute"

Part 1: "I think it; therefore, it's true" -- a thinking error of the criminal

Mind-altering Substances as Facilitators of Whatever the Offender Seeks

The Criminal and Control

The Criminal's Lying: "Compulsion" or "Habit"?

Identifying Thinking Errors in Child Custody Cases

Narcissism and the Antisocial Personality Disorder -- a Lot in Common

Lies- "A Taint of Death"

The Criminal Who Wants To Change -- Where's the Excitement?

The "Conscience" of the Perpetrator of Fraud or, How a Beloved and Trusted Person Preys Upon Friends, Closest Associates, and Long Time Acquaintances

A "Non-concept" but Information, Nonetheless, for December...

The All or Nothing Thinking of the Criminal

The Argument that there is "Larceny in Every Soul" is Hollow

When "Rehab" and Alcoholics Anonymous is Not Enough

The Alleged Relationship Between Attention Deficit Disorder and Criminality

Peer Pressure as a Causal Factor in Criminal Behavior?

"Errors in Thinking" Apply to the Alcoholic or Problem Drinker

Early Identification of Antisocial Behavior - Part I

Does the Criminal "Burn Out" with Age?

More on the Role of the Social Environment

Does Prison Make a Person a "Worse Criminal"?

The Male Criminal's Choice of Women

An Alternative View of "Compulsive" Gambling

The Primacy of Thinking

Dick Diver from F. Scott Fitzgerald's "Tender Is the Night": A comment on a 1920's narcissist and today's celebrity narcissists

Another "Addiction"?

Musings about City Safety - USA and Spain

Virginia Tech: Can a Future School Shooter be Identified?

White Collar Crime and Street Crime: Similar Thought Processes

More on "Addiction" as a "Disease"

The Criminal and Suicidal Thinking

"I think, therefore I feel": The Primacy of Thinking

The Overuse and Misuse of the Word "Addiction"

The Social Environment Does Not "Cause" Crime

"Anna Karenina" -- A Study in Character

The Concept of "Nonarrestable" Criminality

A Note on "Copycat" Violent Crimes

How "Errors in Thinking" Apply to Pedophiles

Suggestibility and the Juvenile Offender

Part I: Anger and the Criminal

An Expanded Concept of "Criminality"

Neurotic Features in the Individual with an Antisocial Personality Disorder

Sporadic Remorse Elevates the Criminal's View of Himself as a Good Person

Can A Criminal Learn to be Empathic? -- Parts I and II

"Compulsive" Gambling: Mental Disorder or Irresponsibile Choices?

Opportunistic Looting as in the Aftermath of Hurricane Katrina

"Kleptomania": A Reality or a Psychiatric Invention?

"Love" -- The Criminal's Experience is Extremely Limited

The Problem with "Anger Management"

Religion in the Criminal's Good Opinion of Himself/Herself

From Maudlin Sentiment to Savage Brutality

The Use of the Offender's Language is Counterproductive in Interviewing and Counseling

The Concept of "Confrontation" in Helping Offenders Change

"I think, therefore it is so": A Costly Error of Thinking

A Clarification about the Alleged Causal Connection between the Larger Social Environment and Criminal Behavior

Does the Criminal Experience Remorse?

Thinking in Extremes

Peer Pressure

Reading and Poetry Do Not a Reformed Criminal Make

What the Drug-Using Criminal Really Means by a "High"

The Criminal's Anger Results from Fear

Typing Offenders by the Crime for Which They Are Arrested -- Concealing More than Revealed?

The Criminal Does Learn from Experience

The Criminal's Shutting off Conscience

The Criminal's Lack of a Concept of Interdependence

The Criminal and "Low Self-Esteem"

Control: For a worthy aim or for its own sake?

Bipolar Disease or the Ups and Downs of the Antisocial Person's Unrealistic Expectations?

"Out of Character Crime" is Not Out of Character

The Armed Bank Robber and the Corporate Crook are One and the Same

Drug Addiction: A Caution about the Disease Concept

Dependence versus Exploitation

Drugs as Escape or as Facilitators?

Criminality and Suggestibility

The Futility of Focusing on Causes of Criminal Behavior When Evaluating and Counseling Adult or Juvenile Offenders

The Criminal Knows Right From Wrong

Can A Criminal Learn From Experience?

Working to Eliminate Anger

Self Esteem: What is it?

Can An Agent of Change be Both a Counselor and a "Cop"?

Chronic Drug Abuse -- For "Escape" or Excitement?

"Respect" in the Street Sense versus Respect in the Responsible World

Power and Control -- Legitimate or Not?

"Addiction" -- the disease concept in treating criminals

Does the Criminal Have a Conscience?