Crime and Everyday Life

The Motivated Offender

When people pause to think, “What makes up crime?” most tend to focus—some might say dwell—on the criminal offender. The stereotypes that surround this person may or may not parallel the characteristics of all violent predators, but neither are they entirely atypical. According to numerous studies, male offenders generally embark on their criminal “careers” or life trajectories of crime at an early age (see Blumstein and Cohen 1987; Laub and Lauritsen 1993; Sampson and Laub 1993). More often than not, such a criminal began life in an emotionally charged, unstable environment. There he experienced repeated severe physical abuse and emotional trauma and showed signs of “hypermasculinity” engendered by the absence of a father (see Amato and Gilbreth 1999; Henrich 1999; Ishii-Kuntz 1994; Munroe and Munroe 1992; Werner 1979).

Already physically, emotionally, and nutritionally neglected, as a preteen he began to drink alcohol and to obtain and use illegal narcotic substances. This is partly attributable to the abuse he has suffered or it may be an attempt to “self-medicate” (Norden 2001). This reckless consumption may have occurred together with—or at least with the acquiescence of—a surrogate father or other nonbiologically related male who served as his role model.

In addition to his persistent addictions, he may have suffered other psychophysiological maladies, including prolonged enuresis (bed-wetting), and he may have had a history of truancy, fire setting, and cruelty to animals. If he developed a “romantic” interest, this relationship, too, was peppered with violence. This is because by the time such interests typically develop, he was no longer a victim, but what John Dilulio has referred to as a “superpredator,” or a person to whom violence is a normal part of any close relationship. In short, his life has followed a predictable cycle of childhood abuse, the early onset of drug abuse, possibly self-mutilation, including tattooing, a history of suicide attempts, and severe trauma (Norden 2001). The criminal act for which such a person is initially imprisoned is not his first. Despite his history, he will not claim justification or excuse through “mental disease or defect”—more commonly known as the insanity defense—for at least two reasons. First, if he does so he risks spending more time institutionalized than if he enters a “heads up” guilty plea (one without a plea bargain) to the maximum sentence under law for his crime. Second, neither substance abuse nor a personality disorder constitutes a “mental disease or defect” sufficient to excuse crime in any jurisdiction in the United States. It is interesting to note that in 1990, the National Institutes of Mental Health estimated that more than two million Americans presently in prison—or more than 82 percent of the total prison population—have a mental health problem.

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