Northgate
Baptist Church
Northgate
Baptist Church
What Is The Answer?
I. Many In The Criminal Justice System Do Not Understand How The Criminal Thinks.
A. Rehabilitation as it has been practiced cannot possibly be effective because it is Based On A Total Misconception.
B. To Rehabilitate is to Restore To A Former Constructive capacity or condition.
1. There is nothing to which to rehabilitate a criminal.
2. There Is No Earlier condition of being Responsible to which to restore him.
C. "Reintegrating the criminal into the community" is also a misconception.
1. He was Never Integrated In The First Place.
2. The criminal has Long Stood Apart from the community, Contemptuous of people who lived responsibly.
D. To endeavor to provide him with Opportunities For "Success Experiences," which they think he has been denied in the past --- is also a Misconception.
E. It is not his Self-Esteem that needs building.
1. He is Not A Shy, Neurotic Individual who feels he can't do anything right.
2. He thinks of himself as an Exceptional Person who is Superior To Others.
F. In other words, when you deal with a criminal, you are dealing with a "Mind-Set."
II. Punishment And Rehabilitation Both Have Failed To Reform Criminals.
A. U.S. Attorney General Ramsey Clark declared, "Rehabilitation must be the goal of modern corrections. Every other consideration should be subordinated to it."
B. Representing the opposite point of view, syndicated columnist Max Rafferty states, "retribution and restraint seem to be the only answers."
1. Researcher Robert Martinson says, "With few and isolated exceptions, the rehabilitative efforts that have been reported so far have no appreciable effect on recidivism (repeated or habitual relapse into crime).
2. The Criminal Regards Punishment As Unjust because it interferes with the life he wants to lead.
C. According to a 1980 Survey, there were 829 federal justice agencies and 55,279 state and local criminal justice agencies. The entire criminal justice system in fiscal 1979 spent $25.8 billion. Yet, none of this seems to be effective in helping criminals change.
D. After Vocational Training, Remedial Instruction, Behavior Modification, Psychotherapy and Counseling he remains a criminal with the Same Patterns of Thinking and behavior that he had before.
E. Dr. William Dobbs, former director of the criminal psychiatry division at Saint Elizabeth Hospital, the federal institution in Washington D.C. says, "I'm not convinced, for whatever it's worth that any approach we have --- that we really do that much to change people, that we have the tools we need."
III. Some Still Believe That By Helping Patients Gain Insight Into Their Past Behavior, They Could Resolve Their Conflicts And Would No Longer Commit Crimes.
A. However, despite all their insight, these men still were committing Crimes Right On The Hospital Grounds and, when caught, used their newfound insight as justification.
B. Researchers have discovered that the Search For Causes was Futile and contributed only to Rationalization.
1. When the researcher Stopped Swallowing His Patients' Self-Serving stories and concentrated on their current thinking, he saw that they were rational, not crazy at all.
2. The Insanity Defense through which they escaped imprisonment had been A Farce.
C. Researchers have realized that significant and lasting change in the behavior of criminals could occur only with a 180-Degree Alteration In Their Thinking.
D. Criminals must see themselves as the Victimizers They Are, not as the Victims They Claim To Be.
IV. Guidelines For Interviewing A Criminal --- (With The Goal of Helping Him)
A. You must Assume Control of the interview by presenting Your Own View of what the criminal is like.
1. Your main purpose is Not To Establish Rapport with the criminal.
2. Do not fall prey to the Criminal's Diversions, excuses, and other attempts to mislead and confuse you.
B. Do Not Give The Criminal A Chance To Ramble On about his mother, his father, his "bad breaks" in life, or even his crimes.
1. You know practically nothing about his background, Nor Should You Be Interested.
2. None of his hard luck stories Are Relevant --- the circumstances of his life are of no concern --- he is not a victim.
C. To eliminate criminal behavior, it is Essential first to Change The Way A Man Thinks.
D. Ask The Criminal To Listen To Your Statements And Then Tell You Whether He Agrees.
1. "Very Early In Life he had carved out a path Different From Most of those around him."
2. "He had lived A Secret Life and gloried in being slick enough to fool others."
3. "His early and frequent violations grew out of a Demand That The World Suit Him rather than he suit the world."
4. "He insisted that Others Respect Him while He Respected No One."
5. "He paid lip service to responsibility, but actually had Scorned All But Extremely Successful people, whom he thought He Could Surpass in brilliance and accomplishment."
6. "He had a 'Glass Jaw' --- he could dish out abuse but couldn't take even the slightest criticism."
7. "Although he might brag about his friends, he Didn't Know What Friendship Was."
8. "He Considers Himself Decent despite having committed crime after crime and having neglected & abandoned his wife and children, whom he still professed to love."
E. "Ask the criminal if you are right. If he shrugs his shoulders and remarks, "You could say that" --- point out that he is a Coward who Presented A Tough Exterior to the world but who Didn't Have The Guts To Face Up To Who He Is."
F. "If he answers, 'I don't know' --- point out that 'I don't know' is typical of a criminal who Fears Tarnishing His Image By Being Truthful."
G. Coming To Terms With The Truth about himself is Excruciatingly Painful --- the Most Difficult undertaking he will ever experience.
H. Excuses and Exceptions are Not To Be Tolerated.
1. Whether Everyone went off the grounds and drank was irrelevant.
2. "Everyone does it," or "people are like that," --- the only difference between them and me, is that I was caught.
3. People in business and government get away with things.
I. The thin-skinned criminal must learn to Benefit From Criticism, Cope With Rejection, and Roll With Life's Punches.
1. He must Learn To Be Grateful for things going wrong so that he can Learn To Cope with adversity and be Better Equipped for it in the future.
2. He must learn to Think of The Consequences in advance --- long-range thinking.
3. He must Learn To Take Criticism like a man and Improve rather than give up and blame others.
4. The criminal's habit of Blaming Others is a Persistent Obstacle to the process of change.
J. It is Up To The Criminal to create a new life for himself --- nobody else does it for him.
The Delinquent Must Be Held Responsible For His Own Actions.
V. The European "Classical School" of Criminology In The Eighteenth And Early Nineteenth Centuries Saw Man As Responsible For His Acts.
A. Breaking the law was a Willful Act.
B. The Offender Must therefore Pay The Price by being Punished.
VI. Today, Social Workers Emphasize Society's Responsibility for crime and neglect the free will of man.
A. A 1939 U.S. Housing Authority report asserted,
"Substandard Housing is the Direct Cause of delinquency and crime, and its Elimination would result in a Crimeless World." --- Wrong!
B. In 1953, Wertham called Comic Books, "primers for crime."
C. Loth said in 1967 that Intense Suburban Pressures For Status drive youngsters "to go outside the law to obtain money and other things." --- Wrong!
D. Goldenberg stated in 1973, "Juvenile delinquency is basically the product of inappropriate, malfunctioning, and otherwise non-actualizing social institutions. --- Wrong!
E. Sociologists have argued that It Is The Laws Themselves That Make A Person A Criminal --- it is the Kick of Breaking The Law that mattered. --- Wrong!
VII. In Their Environmental Explanations of Criminal Behavior, Sociologists Have All But Omitted Consideration of The Individual Himself --- And The Free Choices He Makes.
A. In the 1970s, many proponents of these programs became disillusioned --- if not cynical.
B. The Soaring Crime Rate among those who Had Abundant economic and social opportunities was Puzzling to these sociologists and criminologists.
1. The criminal Remains A Criminal, no matter where he lives.
2. Crime Is Not Significantly Reduced By Social Programs.
A Search For The Truth
