Inside the Criminal Mind: Revised and Updated Edition
This revised edition of a 1984 study is long on assertion and short on evidence. Dr. Samenow, a clinical psychologist, is legitimately disdainful of explanations of criminal behavior that blame everyone (society, family, violent television, etc.) but the criminal for his actions, but his counter-arguments will persuade few. He makes frequent sweeping generalizations ("Even the most hardened criminals who spout anti-police rhetoric to one another recognize society’s need for police"), and provides nothing other than anecdotes in support of his position that all criminals break the law consciously and deliberately. A short new chapter on terrorism illustrates perfectly the limits of the author’s "methodology"—he defines the issue down to link Al Qaeda with any criminal whose actions frighten someone, and then simply discounts any outside influence as meaningfully contributing to the making of a criminal.Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.