Customer Reviews

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

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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.

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

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.

The author of this book doesn't pull any punches. He delivers a powerful message about the importance of early diagnosis and treatment of behavior and mood disorders that could indicate future sociopathic tendencies.
The book is easy to read with no psychobabble or technical overkill. Lots of anecdotes - it's a shame it hasn't been reprinted.

This gem of a book packs a ton of vital insights in less than 200 pages. Please, if you're dealing with a child who's exhibiting the warning signs, such as -- self-centeredness, lying, resentment of authority, control and cruelty, low frustration tolerance, excitement, lack of empathy, distortion of love, lack of responsibility and discipline, stealing -- do not settle for those pat psychological reasons like, "He's not getting enough attention," or "He has low self-esteem." Instead, buy this book and save your child.

There are two related approaches, both dealing with antisocial behavior. One, Dr. Samuel Yochelson developed a radical approach in dealing with criminals in the prison system, by changing their thinking. He was fed up with the excuses, "I was an abused kid," "I grew up in a bad home." He said the criminal's thinking needed to change, before he could ever be rehabilitated, and that took tough confrontation, not some therapist holding the criminal's hand and saying, "You poor misunderstood thing, you."

Also, Nancy Thomas's groundbreaking book on antisocial/attachment disordered children: "When Love is Not Enough," employs those same principles.

Czudner's book is wonderful, and completes these common sense outlooks. Look at a troubled child's behavior with common sense, pitch all the "low self esteem" books, RUN from those therapists who tell you your kid is doing it for attention. Educators, as Czudner points out, seem to minimize, if not ignore, how important moral values are to a child's mental health.

Ask yourself. Have you ever known a "happy" disrespectful person? I haven't. I have never known a "happy" whiner or complainer, or a "happy" mean-spirited, bitter or entitled person.

Children need to have a sense of purpose, of feeling connected to other people. Czudner observes in his book, and I paraphrase, that the self-esteem movement promotes malignant self-obsession and self-love, BUT, for us to be human and kind and moral, we need to move toward people, not toward ourselves.

I hope he writes a follow-up to this book, and writes more in-depth case studies, befores-and-afters. I would have loved to see more hands-on techniques and approaches with troubled children in his book. Otherwise, this book is just excellent, one of the best.

While I found it interesting and could readily identify my problem child in this book, I found that it never fully gave you much insight in how to handle the children. Many times throughout the book the author references his methods, but does not fully describe what those methods are. When I first began to read it I was excited that I had finally found someone who had identified the problems we were going through. when I finished the book I felt like I had just read someone's opinion that there are budding criminals in the world who are quite young, but not what to do about it.