My Review of "Inside the Criminal Mind"

Samenow's Inside the Criminal Mind is an odd book to review. Samenow, a research psychologist, says criminal behavior is 100% voluntary. It is a product of disordered thought patterns that are almost entirely congenital. Poverty doesn't cause crime, Samenow claims. Nor do bad parenting, peer pressure, drug use, or any of the other "standard excuses". Some kids are born anti-authoritarian thrill seekers and will remain so pretty much no matter what. The only hope is to get criminals to intensively examine their thought patterns, and change them through sheer force of will.

Originally written in 1984, I have to wonder: Is this book merely a product of its time? That is, does it represent the best of the cultural thinking that went into personal responsibility and individualism that was so rampant in America in the mid-1980s?

Because, let's be honest: Inside the Criminal Mind has a glaring problem. To quote another 1980s cultural artifact: "Where's the beef?" After having finished the book, I never saw the evidence to Samenow's argument. There are plenty of charts and graphs. But we never really get beyond the anecdotal evidence: Bill, a 23 year old shoplifter, and Leroy, a 30 year old drug dealer.

I'm in the process of earning my degree in Emergency Management, so it would be nice to see the numbers, the statistical studies, that support Samenow's thesis. And Inside the Criminal Mind left me wanting more.

I think criminality has a lot more to do with personality than most academics. But I've long enough to know that we can't entirely dismiss environment. Not in the way this book does.

Inside the Criminal Mind is a bracing read, make no doubt about it. But its idea needs a second look. Because I think Samenow's answer here is just too simplistic.

I received this book free, from the Blogging for Books program, in exchange for my honest review.

Comments

My Review of "The Prayer Wheel"

Patton Dodd, Jana Riess, and David van Biema's The Prayer Wheel: A Daily Guide to Renewing Your Faith a Rediscovered Spiritual Practice brings a long-lost diagram that can be used to structure a 28-day discipline of prayer back into the practice of modern Christian spirituality. The diagram was found in a 12th-century German book of gospels that emerged at a rare book dealer in Manhattan in 2015. They begin with a cursory explanation of the wheel's origins but are primarily interested in reviving the use of the wheel to guide and enrich prayer by tying each day to a different thematic element of scripture. In concentric rings representing sections of the Bible and through seven "contemplative paths toward God" arranged like spokes through the rings he wheel uses Christianity's "big ideas" about the Lord's Prayer, the gifts of the Holy Spirit, events in the life of Christ, and the beatitudes to form a progression of prayer. The Praye

My Review of "The Tea Planter's Wife"

Dinah Jefferies' The Tea Planter's Wife is a fun novel that vividly depicts the 1920s. Gwendolyn Hooper, her 19-year-old heroine, speaks for an empire-branded breed of gutsy young British women who left the security of England to embark on extraordinary adventures abroad. Not the back-packing, "lonely planet" travels of today, gap-year kids constantly connected with the folks back home via internet and smartphones, and usually safely and predictably back home for good inside a year. Girls like Gwen married men who made their living and fortunes out in the colonies -- or what until very recently had been colonies -- and went out to join them, standing shoulder-to shoulder with their husbands to face down hardship, danger, disease, monsoon, drought, and not least the simmering and sometimes murderous resentment of locals. That makes The Tea Planter's Wife so much more than a love story -- it's a recognition that girls like Gwen had guts, and c

My Review of "How to Be a Perfect Christian"

At first I was a little uncertain about The Babylon Bee's new book, How To Be a Perfect Christian: Your Comprehensive Guide to Flawless Spiritual Living . Even the title betrays so much of what makes the website so popular: Sarcasm and humor. But once I started this book, I simply couldn't put it down! There are some amazing tidbits about doctrine -- which, in an interesting way, makes you start wondering what it is that authentic Christians believe, not the cultural Christians who are the punch-line of nearly every joke in this book. But there's a coloring page to boot! You simply cannot miss this book. I received a free copy of this book in exchange for my honest review here.

The Mrs. & the Minister

Search This Blog