How to Build Lifetime Criminals 101

By Daniel Miessler on February 28th, 2009: Tagged as Psychology

I think there’s a line young miscreants ride on–a line between mischief and criminal. Most important to which they end up on is how they are treated by their parents, the police, and their society as a whole when they commit minor infractions.

This kind of behavior, in my opinion is NOT likely to keep a kid out of trouble. In fact, I think it’s likely to make them a much more hateful person–one who is capable of inflicting suffering on others for pleasure.

It largely reduces to the effect of abuse on young humans. It maligns. It twists. Interview 1,000 violent criminals and see how much abuse exists in their past; it’s staggering. And this police officer has just added a bit more twist to this child; perhaps so much that she’ll never come back.

  • CarlM

    Your point extends beyond the treatment of young transgressors of the law. In fact, the effects of abuse are not limited to those who are abused but extend to those who witness such abuse and “learn” that it is the way of the world. There was a stunning (and frightening) column on the editorial page of the Milwaukee paper recently: http://www.jsonline.com/news/milwaukee/39695332…

    Your point also extends to the way we treat ANY prisoners in our custody. If we abuse (or even worse .. if we torture) them, then what kind of example are we setting for the rest of the world? How can we expect any better behavior from anyone else than we are capable of ourselves?

  • dapxin

    hmm, depends on what you see as abuse.

    Take for instance, African families – where it is perfectly acceptable for kids (once grown enough to construct whats right/wrong mentally) to be spanked, slapped or actually horse-whipped. Kids, and I talk from experience, grow up hating the elderly ones that are bestowed this right, but by the time you reach 18/20, you are able to see the point as not of hating, but of discipline.

    The human mind, in its complexity is not programmed to grow in a painless world – It is the psyche and intensity of the world, that has to be controlled.

  • cooperati

    “Your point extends beyond the treatment of young transgressors of the law.”

    Well put. In fact, I'd have to say this is not a prime example of where the focus needs to be applied. Most, by far, of the the violence on youth who are in the “school of violence” comes from sources OTHER THAN police and figures of authority and protection.

    This example is not one to be hushed, but it should be put alongside the rest of violent acts, specifically to include the criminal-on-innocent crime, or crime happening between mutual criminal participants.

    Criminals come from any environment, but this kind of violation is a betrayal of trust, indeed. They can be anyone; people are prone to these transgressions. Now we can establish than one event or a series of events will be the determining factor of how much “education” a young person will get.

    Then again, if he didn't learn the first time, he has another eye to blacken. The criminal mind is not the standard, and yet, it follows a model that is dependent on repetitive acts, following repetitive thoughts. “I can get away with doing this.”, at which point they get caught, sent to an institution that, yes, does NOT do enough to get the pathology out of their range of options.

    However, I, for one, will not paint ALL police and prison guards in this light; (not half, and not even most of half.) Nor will I say that each criminal behind bars is incapable of harming the guards.

    -=T=-

  • http://myopera.com/dapxin dapxin

    hmm, depends on what you see as abuse.

    Take for instance, African families – where it is perfectly acceptable for kids (once grown enough to construct whats right/wrong mentally) to be spanked, slapped or actually horse-whipped. Kids, and I talk from experience, grow up hating the elderly ones that are bestowed this right, but by the time you reach 18/20, you are able to see the point as not of hating, but of discipline.

    The human mind, in its complexity is not programmed to grow in a painless world – It is the psyche and intensity of the world, that has to be controlled.

  • cooperati

    “Your point extends beyond the treatment of young transgressors of the law.”

    Well put. In fact, I'd have to say this is not a prime example of where the focus needs to be applied. Most, by far, of the the violence on youth who are in the “school of violence” comes from sources OTHER THAN police and figures of authority and protection.

    This example is not one to be hushed, but it should be put alongside the rest of violent acts, specifically to include the criminal-on-innocent crime, or crime happening between mutual criminal participants.

    Criminals come from any environment, but this kind of violation is a betrayal of trust, indeed. They can be anyone; people are prone to these transgressions. Now we can establish than one event or a series of events will be the determining factor of how much “education” a young person will get.

    Then again, if he didn't learn the first time, he has another eye to blacken. The criminal mind is not the standard, and yet, it follows a model that is dependent on repetitive acts, following repetitive thoughts. “I can get away with doing this.”, at which point they get caught, sent to an institution that, yes, does NOT do enough to get the pathology out of their range of options.

    However, I, for one, will not paint ALL police and prison guards in this light; (not half, and not even most of half.) Nor will I say that each criminal behind bars is incapable of harming the guards.

    -=T=-


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