Review of The Myth of the Out of Character Crime by Stanton Samenow


 The Myth of the Out of Character Crime by Stanton Samenow

copyright 2010

Another great book on the criminal mind by Samenow. 
"The theme of this book is that people always respond in character, that is impossible for a person to do otherwise. " Samenow tackles the tough but popular thought of "He just snapped" and  expression when someone does something bad, " That is so out of character !" or " They would never do that!" . Samenow's theory and supporting evidence is that people never act of character and when you dig deep you find a lot of supportive evidence that the person, all along had exhibited the traits that led up to the crime. 
Samenow examines 5 cases studies for the book although he has examined hundreds of others. 
1. Washington Snipers Lee Malvo and John Muhammed.
2. Steven, a talented young scientist with no criminal record accused of kidnapping, and threatening to blow a man's head off. 
3. Stuart, 20 year old " all American kid who did a weird thing" - rape of a teenager girl that he followed from school. 
4. Mark, a highly intelligent man with a doctorate who was driven to expose himself at every turn. 
5. Mary, a retired social worker in her fifties had been arrested for possessing nearly a millions dollar worth of drugs in her home. 

6. Wally, who stabbed his wife to death in the kitchen when they quarreled over a financial document. 

7. Mike, a pedophile who ended up molesting a number of boys and spent a disturbing amount of time justifying his behavior and explaining he was traumatized by his arrest. 
Samenow drops snippets of other people case history here and there but these ones he delves into in depth.  
They all share the same distinction - Samenow was called in to do a psychological profile either by the defense or prosecution to evaluate the mental state of the individual because they all acted ' out of character'. Samenow documents a clear path and pattern of " errors of thinking".  
Errors of thinking is the cornerstone for behavior and in the case of Stuart, he had years of thinking errors. " Shocked by Stuart's arrest, his dad declared, ' This action is 99.99 percent out of character!' . I was soon to discover that the rape that Stuart committed was actually 100 percent within his character ! " (page 91). In Stuarts case, he started early on with writing rape and control fantasies until he acted on those thoughts. 
Thinking errors  are " The error is is a flaw in the thought process that results in behavior that injures others." ( page 7 ) even minor injury such as hurt feelings. Lashing out at a cashier or customer service rep because you've made a decision, an error in thinking that somehow yelling at them will improve your situation. 
With these case studies the error in thinking escalates to the point of criminal behavior. 
In the book, Samenow also pops the balloon of the irresistible impulse in that choices were made up to that point and also the multiple personality defense. In two of the case studies the subjects tried to explain their behavior as "someone else", a different persona must have done it.  In these two, Samenow addresses the issue and clearly details how it was a defensive tactic where the person just didn't want to acknowledge this was really a part of who they were. 
Lastly, Samenow brings up a really interesting point that everyone he interviews wanted to be thought of as a good person. " Among so much new that I learned perhaps the most astounding finding was that no matter how numerous, bizarre, or gruesome their crimes every participant in that long term research - treatment study regarded himself as a good person at heart. As one man said " If I thought of myself as evil, I couldn't live "( page 73).
In the book Samenow details some of the struggles and issues he has to contend with in interviewing people to create the required profile and information. Everything from deception to feigned indignation to outright defiance and it is interesting the tools people will use to cover up their track record.  Even when everyone else proclaims ' how could this happen?!" it's like the person knows the crime is not really out of character. 


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

My cat is demanding! What we can learn about stalking

Image
My cat is demanding! What we can learn about stalking behaviors. If you have cat, you'll recognize this behavior.  When the cat is hungry is will meow, nudge your legs and make a general nuisance of himself until you open that can.  You try to ignore the cat....you pet the cat... you tell it you'll feed it in a few minutes but nothing works.  The cat keeps trying... After the 10th time of coming to you, you finally give in and feed the cat. What has the cat learned ?  It takes 10 encounters for you to give in.  So the cat learns , the first 9 are going to be ignored and it's the 10th time is the sweet spot. Stalkers learn the same way. If they leave 9 messages and they are ignored and you respond on the 10th one, what have they learned? It takes 10 times to get a response out of you.  And it might not be just a text message. It might be 3 text messages, 3 notes on your car, 2 emails, 5 phone calls before you finally give in and say " Stop contacting me!" So...
Read more

Death Penalty - A slippery slope

Image
  The Polly Klaas story rocked the nation for highlighting the idea that no one is safe, even in your own home during a slumber party.   I've included the entire article here. In 2024, a judge turned down the request for his death penalty to be recalled. But imagine if it was a possibility ? So now, he can have the lack of parole reviewed. And then possibility of early release. Although not likely, there is the possibility. nbsp; The takeaway from this article is as Marc Klaas states "  "If my family can be subjected to the possible recall of capital sentence of a condemned murderer who, prior to murdering Polly, had multiple convictions for violence towards women and was diagnosed as a sexually sadistic psychopath, then any victim’s family who thought that justice was served in the courtroom is in for a shocking new reality," Marc said in his statement. "If Polly’s killer is somehow able to prevail, this is the tip of the iceberg." He is correct. A death s...
Read more

Review of Mercy - Message is that AI can't be trusted

Image
 I wanted to review this movie because it intersects crime, crime prevention, evidence, justice and how justice is blind or should be...or shouldn't  be.   One of the most  chilling opening lines is " Mercy does not make mistakes".  It allows for the average citizen to develop a hands off, everything's fine attitude toward criminal justice.  The story takes place over a course of  a 90 minute trial where the protagonist Chris Raven, a police detective is accused of murdering his estranged wife. The evidence presented is both current events over the last 12 hours before the murder and also historical evidence of video clips, text messages sent by his now deceased wife Nicole.  The story unfolds with plots twists and turns and we come to find out that Chris is simply not a noble, likable character with a history of violent outbursts, drinking and relapse.  In the end we find out, no surprise that Chris is innocent of the charge, the comput...
Read more