Small Criminals Among Us: How to Recognize and Change Children's Antisocial Behavior - Before They Explode [Paperback]

Gad Czudner (Author)

Book Description

With tales of children killing children filling newspaper headlines, families, teachers and observers of "difficult children" are in a quandary — what can be done to identify and help such troubled youngsters before they explode?

In Small Criminals Among Us, respected psychologist Dr. Gad Czudner, who has been treating such cases for the last twenty-five years, tells us when such symptoms as lying, power and control urges, lack of responsibility, distortions of love, low frustration tolerance, resentment of authority, lack of empathy and the need for excitement become actual danger signals alerting us to a budding criminal. Moreover, describing why traditional methods to eliminate such behavior patterns don't work, Dr. Czudner gives us firm guidelines on how to change the criminal child into a socially responsible one.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

Following up on their excellent earlier work, The Roller-Coaster Years: Raising Your Child Through the Magical yet Maddening School Years, Giannetti and SagareseAonline parenting experts for iVillage's Parentsoup web siteAhere focus on rescuing "middlers" (ten- to 15-year-olds) from a wide range of predicaments. Without effective coping and teaching skills, many well-intentioned parents can make serious mistakes and watch their middlers struggle in delinquent behaviors. The authors provide a wide range of resources and preventive strategies in an expertly organized, lucid format supported by the latest research. Psychologist Czudner has written an equally timely book. He discusses "budding criminals" (ages two to 17): morally illiterate juveniles who are not very "nice children" even if they do not end up in jail. They are addicted to power and try to obtain it through activities ranging from classroom disruption to murder. Early detection helps, as does the teaching of "pro-social" skills and moral values based on understanding and feeling. Nurturing feelings of empathy and guilt makes children responsive to the suffering of others. Czudner considers empathy innate and guilt a "positive human characteristic." He decries the excessive modern preoccupation with self-awareness, self-love, and self-esteem, arguing that what is needed is for children to become morally and emotionally intelligent. Excellent companion reading to Daniel P. Goleman's Emotional Intelligence: Why It Can Matter More Than IQ (LJ 9/1/95).AChogollah Maroufi, California State Univ., Los Angeles
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Product Details

• Paperback: 208 pages
• Publisher: New Horizon Press (July 1, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0882821806
• ISBN-13: 978-0882821801
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,019,543 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A definitive handbook for those involved with children., September 5, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Small Criminals Among Us: How to Recognize and Change Children's Antisocial Behavior - Before They Explode (Paperback)

Don't be turned off by the title. It could also be called ..."Good, Bad and Dangerous Children". The author identifies the telltale signs of children at risk from the toddler to the teen and what can be done to turn their disruptive behavior around, - before it's too late. While maintaining anonymity, examples are given of actual situations that allow the reader to consider how these behaviors may relate to concerns they may be dealing with. Cases cover the challenges of mealtimes, baby-sitter turnover, the only child, sibling relationships, stealing, lying and parental experiences after just saying no. It talks about children who may not end up in jail, but who are also not nice people.

The author recognizes that mistakes can be made in the name of love and draws the distinction between loving a child and teaching the child to love. These mistakes are recognized as providing conditional love, denial, excusing and not differentiating between the good child and his/her bad behavior. And, as with all mistakes the author points out they are correctable with recognition and purpose.

"Small Criminals" provides food-for-thought-for-everyone while conveying the subtle message that "we're" not alone out there. It proposes a common sense approach to raising children that teaches giving instead of taking and sharing instead of keeping. In my opinion, a must-read for everyone who shares this responsibility and want results.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An excellent resource for helping disruptive students., June 6, 2000

By 

Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Small Criminals Among Us: How to Recognize and Change Children's Antisocial Behavior - Before They Explode (Paperback)

Gad Czudner, Ph.D., wrote Small Criminals Among Us: How to Recognize and Change Children's Antisocial Behavior--Before They Explode, "to provide parents, teachers and others with a new method and some firm guidelines on how to tackle the problem of potentially delinquent children." Dr. Czudner is a clinical psychologist who has worked for more than twenty years with troubled children. He is also a consulting psychologist at three correctional facilities. His emphasis is on how to change unacceptable behavior, rather than looking at the reasons why children behave badly. He maintains that "too much power and control at an early age can and many times does produce a potential criminal." He teaches parents and teachers how to regain their rightful control over small children, so that the children can then be taught appropriate behavior. Dr. Czudner's research has shown that problem children do not suffer from a lack of self-esteem, as is often believed, but rather those children have an excess of self-centeredness. He has developed a five-step program for teaching children to be aware of the feelings of others and taking responsibility for the ways in which their actions can hurt others. He calls this the "cognitive moral approach" and explains it fully. He describes the characteristics of potentially criminal children--signs which are often apparent by age one or two--and explains how to eliminate the negative behavior patterns before real trouble develops. The appendices include questionnaires that help parents evaluate their child's attitudes at various ages. Dr. Czudner says he believes that "effective rehabilitation should focus more on the individual's way of thinking and acting, over which he or she has some control, rather than on past social conditions which cannot be changed." In Small Criminals Among Us, he shows parents exactly how to help their young children modify their thoughts and actions, before they grow up enough to get into serious trouble. Teachers will also find the book an excellent resource for helping disruptive students learn more acceptable behavior. Sandra I. Smith

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A book about the development of bad people, October 6, 2002

By 

Kyle Lassiter "Therapist and Life Coach" (Colorado, United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Small Criminals Among Us: How to Recognize and Change Children's Antisocial Behavior - Before They Explode (Paperback)

While there are a few areas one could wish for more information, this book is a thought provoking place to start your reading on the subject of anti-social children.