The Criminal Personality: A Profile for Change (Volume I) [Paperback]

Samuel Yochelson (Author), Stanton E. Samenow (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 1568211058 | ISBN-13: 978-1568211053 | Publication Date: April 1, 2000

The Criminal Personality presents a detailed description of criminal thinking and action patterns and convincingly argues that these patterns cannot be explained by sociologic or psychologic explanations alone.

A Jason Aronson Book

Editorial Reviews

Review

The basic defect of traditional treatment systems is the persisting concept that criminals think and reason as non-criminals do and that they, therefore, respond similarly to both reasoning and love. Yochelson and Samenow have definitely profiled the characteristics of the errors of criminal thinking, together with their derivatives—feeling and behavior. They show persuasively that because of ingrained and pervasive errors of thinking, criminals live and act in a world with entirely different assumptive bases than those of non-criminals. The authors then proceed to develop a treatment program using a phenomenological process. This exhaustive and painstaking study marks a turning point in the history of efforts to rehabilitate criminals. (W. Edward Naugler, M.D. )

The Criminal Personality is important reading for you. It is an often devastating book that is uncompromising in its refection of conventional wisdom in the field of criminal psychology. It rejects the concept of the criminal as biopsychosocial victim, and in its place formulates an accountability theory based on the premise that criminals freely choose and prefer lives of crime. (Murphy, Tim )

The Criminal Personality is a seminal work that provides challenge to mental health professionals to alter their preconceptions in dealing with criminals, and gives correctional counselors a blueprint to begin the serious work of criminal rehabilitation. One by one the cherished myths of sociology and psychology regarding the origins of criminality are discarded, since the authors find that rationalizations of broken family, racial oppression, bad companions, and lack opportunity' are utilized by criminals to justify continued nonresponsibility for their own behavior. (Robert B. Mills )

About the Author

Samuel Yochelson, Ph.D., M.D., was until his death in 1976, director of the Program for the Investigation of Criminal Behavior at Saint Elizabeths Hospital, Washington, D.C. and research professor of clinical psychiatry at George Washington University School of Medicine


Stanton E. Samenow, Ph.D., is a clinical psychologist in Alexandria, Virginia. He is also the co-author of The Criminal Personality, Volume II: The Change Process, and The Criminal Personality: Volume I, A Profile for Change.

Product Details

• Paperback: 552 pages
• Publisher: Jason Aronson, Inc. (April 1, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1568211058
• ISBN-13: 978-1568211053
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6 x 1.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #844,887 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The next step and a must have for those woring with felons, November 4, 2000

By 

Dolores Vinson (Philadelphia PA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Criminal Personality: A Profile for Change (Volume I) (Paperback)

This is an excellent book to continue the journey of understanding the Criminal Mind. This book is more detailed. It shows the drawbacks and the difficulty working with this population. It examines every approach from the past up to and including the present in trying to change Criminal behavior. Why methods have failed and what holds promise. Most of the research was done by a man named Samuel Yochelson who shared his ideas and work with Dr Samenow. Together they untangle the maze that has baffled many on this topic. A must have for those working in the criminal justice fields.

18 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Answers why criminals are that way and how to fix them., July 2, 1997

By A Customer

This review is from: The Criminal Personality: A Profile for Change (Volume I) (Paperback)

"Conventional wisdom" about criminals is wrong. Dr. Yochelson found why criminals are the way they are and how to habilitate them. Volume I exposes the areas in which criminals are different than responsible people. Volume II is a method for correcting those differences, but, as joke says, "they gotta wanna change."

Read these books to find out why the current system doesn't rehabilitate habitual criminals.

Dr. Samenow collaborated on these volumes and wrote other books for the general audiance.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Ponderer, June 2, 2008

By 

Kenneth Kincaid "The Ponderer" (FL) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Criminal Personality: A Profile for Change (Volume I) (Paperback)

Although repetitive in places, not overly so for a research report of many years, it is informative. It is probably as deep a look into `the thinking pattern of criminals' as I have encountered. This research concludes the `criminal' has an anti social mind set by the age of ten, but does not endeavor to dissect what causes it. [Too many variables outside the observation of the researchers] It sticks to its expertise, the thinking patterns, and influence on the behavioral patterns of convicted (and otherwise identified) criminal. A must read for anyone wanting to understand why people commit crimes.