The Criminal Mind

[Ozme52]

If you've got nothing lose, risking it all can also be "smart". It's the difference between putting all your money on 22 black or someone else's. We did plenty of shit that wasn't about personal gain. When we had taken the leap to the place where we didn't worry about our own safety or life, (which I think is necessary) taking risks is no big deal. No matter how big it is. I took the leap to begin with out of desperation...and then I kept going.

I can see how you might get to that perspective. I was fortunate to find other avenues when I was unable to find work. I never went hungry and I had several options regarding shelter. So I never had to make that choice.

[TomOfSweden]

I can see how you might get to that perspective. I was fortunate to find other avenues when I was unable to find work. I never went hungry and I had several options regarding shelter. So I never had to make that choice.

I'm not sure I had to make that choice. I think the desperation I felt was on an other level than simple starvation.

The difference between us might be that, 1) I was 16 and thought I'd figured it all out. An idiot in other words. 2) I was a real little obnoxious shit who equated the fact that people liked following me around with that what I said had merit.

I also think that I was a bit loony at the time. I'd been under tremendous mental stress for such a prolonged period, that at the time that I was on the brink of snapping. After the state took custody I did have quite a mental break-down of sorts. So chances are that I wasn't well adjusted mentally enough to keep a job even if I wanted to. I'm not sure.

I can't blame anybody else, because most, (if not all) of the shit we did was my ideas. I still remember my biggest issue at the time. I was mostly living in fear that girls would figure out that I wasn't as cool as I was pretending to be. I can't recall a single fraction of a second pondering moral issues. I was just not in that mental space at all. We still did follow certain moral laws, so we weren't completely out of control. It's just that I can't really recall any system to it. Most probably we adjusted our morals according to what we wanted. Some morals where easier to adjust than others, depending on how ingrained they are. It's a theory.

Regarding choices. The thing I liked about crime life was that, there was rules to it I could understand. I'm only talking about logical rules. If you played the game right you got what you wanted....straight away. Grown-up/legit life is a lot more complex.

I was basically living in the streets at the time. Not street streets. I never actually lived in the streets, but I never knew where I'd end up sleeping each night. And I had to hang out with friends every single night, or I'd be sure not to find somewhere to sleep. It makes it very hard to keep to any regular day-time activities, like showing up on time each day to a job. Sure, I could have gone home to my parents at any time. But I thought that sleeping in the streets was better for my well being. And it probably was.

Not having anything stable in life to grab onto can bring the feeling of desperation even though in truth, there's plenty of options.

[Uncle_Ed]

This has given me cause for thought, Tom.

I have been so fortunate in my life as I have never been desperate enough to seek gain of a possession or gain of an advantage over another person by law-breaking. So my perspective is very limited.

I was brought up to respect rules and laws and saw no reason to break them, even when going through my teenage years. I should perhaps add that I did break minor rules-as most of us do when faced with one which appears petty or ill-advised. I did so mostly in the heat of the moment and without prior planning.

I suppose that would indicate that my behaviour is as a result of both nature and nurture? These days I can rationalise my keeping to rules and especially to the law of this land as I have a very keen awareness of the consequences of law-breaking on others-the victims. I rigidly keep to the speed limit, for example. I have been in the Motor Trade and have worked for one of the major car manufacturers in the type approval department. There I saw the results of crash tests. It was not a nice thing to consider that the vehicles would contain fragile human beings.

I have posted before that I consider a major malaise of society to be the lack of consideration for others. Perhaps I am therefore saying that the criminal mind is this inconsideration taken to extremes-ergo the answer should be to either remove the criminal from the society or re-educate them into feeling part of that society and thereby wanting to consider the results of their actions on others?

It is a complex problem. I'm intrigued by the points of view here.

[TomOfSweden]

the answer should be to either remove the criminal from the society or re-educate them into feeling part of that society and thereby wanting to consider the results of their actions on others?

...and then both of these you mentioned are all brought upon the criminal from an external source, and as we all know, personal change can only come from within. Beside being a bit commie for my tastes And there's no guarantee that any measure will lead to any permanent change in the mentality of the criminal.

It's a very difficult subject. If not impossible. The simple truth might be that even though sending bad guys to prison, might be a very bad solution. It might be necessary for society as a whole just to make it function at all. I mean, we can't have a system where criminals decide on which rules to conveniently break, no matter how useless it might be to punish them.