Psychology, pathological, specific, crime.  ---  .Introduction or sum up.  Psychological causes of crime.  Ethical dimensions of crime.  Political and legal dimensions of crime.  Social dimensions of crime.  Technological dimensions of crime.  ---  6/5/2004

Psychology, pathological, specific, crime.  ---  .This section is about crime.  Topics include: ( ) Causes of.  ( ) Types of.  ( ) Ways to prevent.  ---  1/24/2006

Psychology, pathological, specific, crime.  ---  (1) Causes of crime.  Actual causes of criminal behavior, rather than the reasons criminals tell themselves or others.  For example: Money, greed.  Power.  Sex, love, women.  Anger, hate.  Ideological opposition.  (2) Reasons criminals tell themselves for their actions.  (3) Reasons criminals say to others for their actions.  ---  7/15/2004

Psychology, pathological, specific, crime.  ---  (1) Psychology and crime.  Psychology of criminals.  Psychology of victims.  Psychology of law officers.  (2) Sociology and crime.  Sociology of criminals.  Sociology of law enforcement.  Sociology of victims.  Sociology of the general public faced with crime.  (3) Economics of crime.  How much money is lost to crime?  How much time is lost to crime?  (4) Politics, law and crime.  What acts does a society make illegal?  (5) Philosophy and crime.  What acts does a society consider unethical?  (6) Science, technology and crime.  Technology to detect crime.  Technology to commit crimes.  ---  11/25/2005

Psychology, pathological, specific, crime.  ---  Bullying behavior often leads to criminal behavior.  Smaller crimes often lead to larger crimes.  ---  10/5/2005

Psychology, pathological, specific, crime.  ---  Causes of wrongdoing.  (1) Amoral: no sense of ethics.  (2) Evil: intentional wrongdoing.  (3) Stupid: cannot figure out why not to.  (4) No empathy. Lack of feeling.  (5) Crazy: psychological problems.  ---  8/4/2002

Psychology, pathological, specific, crime.  ---  Crime character test.  (1) How much you hate a particular person.  Do you hate all people of that social group because you are a bigot (hate crimes)?  Do you hate the person because they hurt you (revenge crimes)?  Is the person a complete stranger to you?  The less hate involved, the worse the crime because it is more icy?  (2) How much the crime would not hurt any single person (ex. embezzlement).  (3) How big is the payoff of the crime?  Does a bigger payoff make it more tempting to you?  (4) How small is the hurt the crime will cause (tiny crimes, inconsequential crimes).  Does this make it ok to do?  (5) Means.  How easy would it be for you to commit the crime?  Do you have the money or power available to do it, or to have someone else do it?  Ex. If you had a gun in your hand at the moment of anger, would you have killed the person?  (6) Motive.  How much do you hate the person?  How much of an injustice has the person done to you?  How vengeful are you?  How emotional are you?  How crazy are you?  (7) Opportunity.  What if no one was around, and you were absolutely sure you wouldn't get caught.  Would you do it?  How long are you faced with this temptation to do the crime?  Is it just a momentary chance opportunity, or do you have to live with the constant temptation?  ---  05/30/1996

Psychology, pathological, specific, crime.  ---  Crime is not just a psychological issue.  Crime is also a sociological issue, an ethical issue, etc.  I put all the crime notes here for convenience and ease of use.  At base, I think sociology and ethics are about psychology anyway.  ---  4/29/2001

Psychology, pathological, specific, crime.  ---  Crime, causes of.  (1) Sadists.  Get sexual kicks from others pain.  (2) Power mongers.  Destruction just to feel power and strength.  Unconsciously feel impotent?  (3) Freedom anarchists.  ---  6/1/1998

Psychology, pathological, specific, crime.  ---  Crime, types of.  (1) Crimes that deal directly with people (ex. robber) vs. crimes that do not deal directly with people (ex. burglar).  (2) Of the crimes that deal directly with people, some use trust and trickery (ex. con man), and some use threat and force (ex. robbery).  ---  6/23/2000

Psychology, pathological, specific, crime.  ---  Crime, types of.  (1) Violent crimes.  Corporate crimes.  Organized crime.  (2) Personal crimes.  Property crimes.  Money crimes.  ---  3/23/2004

Psychology, pathological, specific, crime.  ---  Crime.  (1) Criminal organizations.  Structure and mechanism.  Leadership.  (2) Initiations and enculturations.  (3) Status of criminal in society.  Societies that glorify criminals vs. societies that deal severely with criminals.  ---  6/30/1998

Psychology, pathological, specific, crime.  ---  Crime.  (1) Does technology help enable crime (ex. getaway cars)?  Does technology help prevent crime?  (2) Does education help prevent crime?  What kind of education helps prevent crime?  Does education enable crime?  Only if you teach people to be criminals.  ---  5/17/2002

Psychology, pathological, specific, crime.  ---  Crime.  (1) Some criminals consciously feel impelled to perform a crime.  Impelled by an emotion.  Or impelled on principle.  Impelled so strongly they feel they have to do it.  They feel they have no other choice.  (2) Other criminals deliberate about whether to commit the crime.  They weigh their conflicting feelings.  ---  5/9/2000

Psychology, pathological, specific, crime.  ---  Crime.  (1) Some want object of crime.  (2) Some just want to do something illegal.  (3) Some just want to do something taboo.  ---  12/30/1992

Psychology, pathological, specific, crime.  ---  Crime.  (1) The topic of crime fits into the area of legal and illegal actions, which is part of the more general area of good and bad actions, which is part of ethics.  (2) Two areas:  The causes of crime.  The reasons people give for committing crime.  ---  1/14/2003

Psychology, pathological, specific, crime.  ---  Crime.  (1) There is no correlation between the size of a racket (number of victims), the evilness of a racket (degree of harm to each victim), the degree a cad will go to protect his racket, and thus the degree of difficulty it takes to take down a racket, and the degree of vengeance of a cad taken down.  So thus, you have (A) The big vs. small racket (in dollars), (B) The easy vs. hard to take down, and (C) The big vs. small backlash reaction by the cad.  (Example: a small thug may kill you if you stop him from shoplifting.  His racket may be small, and his victims few, with little damage done to each, but if you foil it he may make your life hell through harassment.  On the other hand, a big swindler may back off if he thinks someone is on to him).  (2)(A) The cad may think no one objects, and so may stop immediately when someone protests.  (B) The cad may think no one knows of his racket, and he may backoff if he thinks someone is on to him.  (3)(A) Thus we develop an argument against fighting little injustices.  You can not be afraid to speak out against injustice, but do pick your battles and tactics carefully, because if you take down a little racket run by a fiercely protective cad, you may suffer a unreasonably big backlash.  (B) The argument for fighting little injustices is that speaking out against small injustices is good practice for speaking out against big injustices.  As you get better at fighting injustice, you take on bigger injustices.  ---  03/08/1997

Psychology, pathological, specific, crime.  ---  Crime.  (1)(A) The attitude of criminals has changed.  They have less community feeling.  They are more willing to screw their neighbor or the public.  They are losing their principles.  (B) The attitude of the public has changed.  They are less vigilant personally and publicly.  They are more fearful.  There is less community feeling among the public to protect neighbors or the public.  (2) Young people commit crimes because (A) They want to rebel.  (B) They are poor.  (C) Anger.  (D) Have little to lose (no job or family).  (E) Are not legal yet.  (F) Ethical sense not well developed yet.  (G) Want to prove to themselves or friends that they can do it, want to prove that they are tough.  (3) Older people commit crimes because...?  ---  09/28/1993

Psychology, pathological, specific, crime.  ---  Crime.  A theory of crime.  Attention = love.  (A simple but true equation).  People act up to get attention.  Criminals feel unloved.  ---  3/29/2000

Psychology, pathological, specific, crime.  ---  Crime.  Causes of crime.  (1) Authority problems.  Attitude of, "No one tells me what to do."  (2) Economic issues.  Attitudes of, (A) "I am poor, starving and need to survive."  (B) "I want to be rich.  I am greedy."  I never want to work again.  I am lazy."  (C) He can't find a job.  Unemployment.  (3) He finds it a thrill.  Adrenaline junky.  Boredom.  (4) Ignorance issues.  Unaware of penalties.  Unaware of probability of being caught.  Unaware how to do it cleanly.  (5) Technological issues.  Means are easily available to do the crime and get away with it.  Low probability of getting caught.  (6) Cost benefit ratio.  If they are caught then the cost of the punishment is less than the benefits of doing the crime.  ---  8/4/2002

Psychology, pathological, specific, crime.  ---  Crime.  Causes of crime.  Few crimes are out of need, like stealing bread to survive.  (1) Greed.  Merely wanting more vs. wanting what others have and you do not.  Buddhism could help here: avoid misery by not wanting things.  (2) Not giving a crap about others.  Murder, rape, and hurting others vs. "victimless crimes", or property crimes like stealing money or goods, crimes where others are not present.  (3) Laziness.  Do not want to work to get things.  (4) Romanticizing crime.  The pirate syndrome.  (5) People can become hopeless and develop wrong views.  Their reasoning can be, "Life has been unfair to me by making me dumb or poor, so it does not matter if I do anything unfair back".  (6) Systemic injustice built into the system vs. isolated crime.  Systemic injustice can be bad laws, or lack of law creation, or lack of law enforcement.  Systemic injustice can also be a culture that does not view an unethical act as bad, regardless of laws about it.  ---  12/26/1997

Psychology, pathological, specific, crime.  ---  Crime.  Causes.  (1) They feel weak and powerless.  They do crime to feel power, strength and control.  Its not about money, it's about power.  (2) They feel anger too.  (3) They have low self-esteem.  (4) They do it because they think they can get away with it.  (5) They do it because they are on booze or drugs.  (6) They do it because they feel justified, because they feel deprived, cheated, ripped off, gypped, and screwed by life.  (7) They do it for the excitement.  (8) They just do not care about others.  (9) They can't imagine a better way, due to lack of imagination.  (10) Hopelessness that they cannot achieve, even if they can imagine.  ---  3/30/1998

Psychology, pathological, specific, crime.  ---  Crime.  Causes.  People get depressed, lose hope, and commit crimes.  Or they get angry, lose temper, and commit crimes.  ---  09/14/1993

Psychology, pathological, specific, crime.  ---  Crime.  Corporate crime.  Corporate crime is widespread.  Corporate crime involves large sums of money.  Even worse are the unethical corporate actions that there ought to be laws against.  For example, corporations that exercise undue influence on government while at the same time bilking workers, stockholders, consumers and the general public.  ---  12/12/2004

Psychology, pathological, specific, crime.  ---  Crime.  Criminals can be (1) Not afraid enough to obey.  No fear.  (2) Not conformist enough to go along.  Too rebellious.  (3) Not smart enough to reason out ethics.  (4) Not enough emotions left to feel ethics.  ---  04/30/1993

Psychology, pathological, specific, crime.  ---  Crime.  Criminology tells us as much about ethics as anything.  There are economic crimes (ex. fraud crimes), violent crimes, and sexual crimes.  Some commit crime out of economic need (ex. stealing food).  Some commit crimes out of lack of morals (ex. no moral principles, do it for fun).  Some commit crimes due to lack of feeling (no empathy for victim).  Some commit crimes due to psychosis (crazy).  ---  03/30/1993

Psychology, pathological, specific, crime.  ---  Crime.  Different causes of crime and all unethical behavior.  (1) Thrill.  Adrenaline rush.  Fun.  See if you can get away with it.  (2) Power trip.  Imposing one's will on others.  Trying to prove how smart you are.  (3) Out of anger.  General anger at the system and life.  Misdirected anger.  (4) No one will notice.  It will not hurt anyone.  Think you can get away with it.  ---  12/20/1998

Psychology, pathological, specific, crime.  ---  Crime.  How big a problem is crime in a society?  (1) What percentage of the population are targets of crime?  What is the average number of crimes they suffer?  What percentage of the population are committing crimes?  What is the average number of crimes they commit?  (2) How many people are attacked?  How much money is lost or stolen?  How much property is destroyed, damaged or stolen?  How much money and time does it cost the society to police and prosecute crimes?  ---  12/30/2002

Psychology, pathological, specific, crime.  ---  Crime.  How to prevent crime?  (1) Less greed.  Buddhist points of view.  No desire.  (2) Smarter people?  Do smarter people commit less crime or do they just get caught less often?  (3) More ethical people.  (4) Higher penalties.  (5) Higher rates of capture and prosecution.  (6) Jobs available.  Less poverty.  (7) Alternate thrills available.  ---  8/5/2002

Psychology, pathological, specific, crime.  ---  Crime.  In order to prevent crime, two sides of the coin can be addressed: the potential criminal and the potential victim.  (1) The potential victim.  Fighting crime by empowering the public.  (A) Ability to protect self.  Bats, dogs, robots.  (B) Security.  Locks, alarms.  (C) Surveillance.  Cameras, etc.  (2) The potential criminal.  Fighting crime by dissuading potential criminals.  (A) Improve their self worth so that they do not think, "If I do not have money and things then I am worthless."  (B) Give them ways to vent their anger and pain constructively.  (C) Socialize them so that they have empathy.  ---  8/10/1999

Psychology, pathological, specific, crime.  ---  Crime.  It is greed, not need, that drives most criminals.  Some criminals are ambitious, not lazy.  Some criminals are smart, not stupid.  Some criminals are sane, not crazy.  But all criminals are unethical when they break ethical laws.  ---  8/10/1999

Psychology, pathological, specific, crime.  ---  Crime.  Lame excuses that people give for committing crimes.  (1) It was a complete, unavoidable accident.  (2) It was an accident due to the fact that I was drunk, on drugs, etc.  (3) I didn't know it was illegal.  (4) I didn't know it was wrong.  Or, I didn't know it was that wrong.  (5) I didn't know it was happening.  I wasn't aware.  ---  5/18/2002

Psychology, pathological, specific, crime.  ---  Crime.  Organized crime does not only want to make money.  They want to rule; they want to govern.  They want legitimate government to fail or be corrupted, so that they can move in.  ---  6/19/2004

Psychology, pathological, specific, crime.  ---  Crime.  Organized crime is a problem.  Organized crime is politically allied with the right wing in that organized crime wants "laissez fare" or "hands off" by the government.  ---  12/12/2004

Psychology, pathological, specific, crime.  ---  Crime.  Organized crime.  One wrong view of organized crime is that organized crime is the result when government makes certain activities illegal, such as gambling, drugs, booze and sex.  The example cited for that view is the flourishing of organized crime in the United States during the prohibition era.  The view of organized crime as a result of government policy can be shown to be wrong in several ways.  (1) Consider the situation in Columbia when Pablo Escobar, the head of the Medelin drug cartel, actually tried to run for office.  This was a situation where organized crime actually infiltrated the government.  (2) Very often organized crime attempts to infiltrate legitimate businesses.  For example, there have been cases where organized crime has infiltrated the construction industry, cement industry and the garbage industry, just to name a few.  (3) A third situation is that organized crime flourishes when governments collapse.  For instance, the collapse of government in eastern Europe has led to situations where organized crime moves into the resulting power vacuum.  (4) The above are three examples which show that organized crime uses tactics of infiltrating legitimate business, infiltrating legitimate government and also seizing power in situations of no government.  Organized crime is opportunistic and predatory.  Organized crime takes what it can, when it can, how it can.  A better understanding of the problem of organized crime will yield to more effective solutions.  ---  12/12/2004

Psychology, pathological, specific, crime.  ---  Crime.  Poor criminals (desperate) vs. middle or upper class criminals (greedy).  ---  3/30/1998

Psychology, pathological, specific, crime.  ---  Crime.  Psychology of crime.  Possible causes of criminal behavior.  (1) Low knowledge.  (2) Poor socialization.  (3) Poor ethical development.  (4) Raised in poor family conditions.  Abuse, neglect, poverty.  Lack of education.  No love.  ---  6/30/1998

Psychology, pathological, specific, crime.  ---  Crime.  Psychology of the victim.  Healing vs. letting it destroy you.  ---  6/30/1998

Psychology, pathological, specific, crime.  ---  Crime.  Reasons they say they do it.  (1) Cost benefit analysis of money gained vs. jail time spent show it worthwhile.  (2) Work is boring and low paying.  ---  8/4/2002

Psychology, pathological, specific, crime.  ---  Crime.  Reasons they say they do it.  Fun.  (1) Fun defined as an exciting, scary, thrilling rush.  (2) Fun defined as an intellectual or physical challenge.  (3) Fun defined as entertaining, enjoyable, amusing.  ---  8/4/2002

Psychology, pathological, specific, crime.  ---  Crime.  Related subjects.  (1) Psychology.  (A) Psychological causes of crime.  (B) Reasons given by perpetrators.  (lame excuses).  (2) Philosophy, ethics.  Unethical nature of crime.  (3) Politics and law.  Illegal nature of crime.  (4) Sociology.  The targets of crime (crime victims).  The public and crime (potential targets).  (5) Economics of crime.  Resources lost to society.  Stolen money. Destroyed property.  Money spent to police and prosecute.  Taxes not paid on money siphoned off by organized crime.  (6) Science and technology of preventing and detecting crimes.  Versus the science and technology of committing crimes.  (7) Other.  Corporate crime: Enron, Tyco, Worldcom, Parmalat.  Public officials assassinated by organized crime in Columbia, Italy, etc.  ---  6/19/2004

Psychology, pathological, specific, crime.  ---  Crime.  Solutions.  (1) Teaching people to not be so materialistic.  Teaching people to live simply, without a lot of material possessions and money.  People desire money (A) For security, because they are fearful of poverty, and (B) So not to have to work (leisure ethic).  (2) Teaching people not to be bullies.  Not to infringe on other people's rights.  Teaching people to be more cooperative.  ---  02/28/1998

Psychology, pathological, specific, crime.  ---  Crime.  The big question is why are people assholes?  Because being an asshole is a precursor to crime.  Ignorance.  Bullies.  Selfish.  No empathy.  Greed.  ---  5/18/2002

Psychology, pathological, specific, crime.  ---  Crime.  The difference between criminals vs. everyday schmucks is like the difference between psychotics and everyday neurotics.  If you add up all the misery caused by everyday schmucks or the misery suffered by everyday neurotics, it is greater than the misery caused by criminals or the misery suffered by psychotics.  So to improve the world you should work on improving everyday schmucks and everyday neurotics as well as criminals and psychotics.  ---  6/18/1998

Psychology, pathological, specific, crime.  ---  Crime.  The recent drop in crime.  Is it due to stiffer penalties?  I think it is due to the increasing use of video cameras, and the subsequent fear of being caught on tape.  ---  04/24/1997

Psychology, pathological, specific, crime.  ---  Crime.  They steal stuff because.  (1) They steal for fun, sport, and the challenge.  (2) They like the stuff and want to keep it.  (3) They hate you and want you to lose your job.  (4) Angry and pissed off at the system.  They feel ripped off and want to get back.  (5) Stealing is as natural to them as breathing.  ---  06/10/1994

Psychology, pathological, specific, crime.  ---  Crime.  Two types of criminals.  (1) Enjoy doing evil regardless of whether it is against the rules or not.  (2) Enjoy breaking rules.  Would not commit crime if it was not against the rules.  ---  02/28/1998

Psychology, pathological, specific, crime.  ---  Crime.  Types of causes of crime.  (1) Crime as rebellion.  (2) Crimes of passion.  ---  03/01/1989

Psychology, pathological, specific, crime.  ---  Crime.  What the outlaw is counting on.  The outlaw is counting on the following:  (1) Some people will look the other way if it does not affect them directly.  Some people are self centered.  (2)(A) Some people believe in the criminal way of life.  Some people are opportunistic predators.  (B) Some people have criminals as heroes.  Some people like bad boys.  Some people buy into the Robinhood myth.  (3) Some people can be intimidated into fear and silence by threats.  Some people can be blackmailed by humiliation.  Some people can be bribed out of greed.  (4) They mistakenly think that if a person does some good then it justifies the bad they do.  They mistakenly think two wrongs make a right.  They mistakenly think that if the powers that be are wrong then anything a rebel does is right.  (5) Some people are more impressed by the outlaw's flashy appearances than by the outlaw's unethical substance.  (6) Some people have ethics systems that are rudimentary at best, so they won't be able to recognize a misdeed.  (7) The outlaw is betting he can keep his misdeeds a secret.  He is betting that he can lie his way out of it if exposed.  He is betting he can do the time if convicted.  ---  6/21/2004

Psychology, pathological, specific, crime.  ---  Crime.  When it comes to addressing the psychology of the potential criminal, in an effort to dissuade him or her from committing crime, both of the following are important.  If either is missing then you have trouble.  (1) Feeling valuable.  That is, self worth.  (2) Feeling valued by others.  Feeling part of a group.  Not feeling denigrated by others.  ---  8/10/1999

Psychology, pathological, specific, crime.  ---  Criminals, types of: (1) Amoral vs. immoral.  (2) Want the booty.  (3) Want to prove how tough they are, to others.  (4) Compulsions.  (5) No tolerance: crimes of hate.  (6) Want to feel tough, cool, or powerful and important.  ---  12/30/1992

Psychology, pathological, specific, crime.  ---  Criminals, types of.  Rebel, sadist, stupid, crazy.  ---  12/30/1992

Psychology, pathological, specific, crime.  ---  Criminals, types of. (1) Devil worshippers.  (2) Career criminals.  (3) Crimes of passions.  (4) Causes of each.  (5) Crime and law, politics, ethics, sociology, and psychology.  ---  12/30/1992

Psychology, pathological, specific, crime.  ---  Criminals.  What they really want is respect.  They do not want to feel like small, low, worthless, poor people.  They want to be the big man.  They do not want to be envious and jealous of others.  They want others to be envious and jealous of them.  They can be ambitious, not lazy.  They can be smart, not stupid.  But they are unethical.  ---  6/18/1998

Psychology, pathological, specific, crime.  ---  Definition.  Crime defined as illegal acts.  ---  6/11/2004

Psychology, pathological, specific, crime.  ---  Ethics and crime.  Crime is a type of unethical behavior that stems from unethical thinking.  Crime, and unethical action in general, are the result of people not developing the ethical area of the brain.  Developing the ethical part of the brain is a learnable skill.  How does a person learn ethics?  Like learning anything else: read about it, talk about it, debate it, argue it, practice it.  Understand the reasons why certain actions are considered ethical and others unethical.  Discuss arguments for and against various actions.  See: Philosophy, ethics.  ---  10/28/2005

Psychology, pathological, specific, crime.  ---  How many cops per population?  How many criminals per population?  How many cops per criminal?  ---  6/11/2004

Psychology, pathological, specific, crime.  ---  How many crimes go unnoticed?  Of noticed crimes, how many go unreported to police?  Of crimes reported to police, how many are solved (solved meaning successful prosecution)?  ---  6/11/2004

Psychology, pathological, specific, crime.  ---  Law and crime.  What acts are considered crimes in most cultures?  Murder.  Attempted murder.  Robbery.  Etc.  ---  6/11/2004

Psychology, pathological, specific, crime.  ---  Math and crime.  Crime statistics.  What percent of the population commit crimes?  What percent of the population are victims of crimes?  The number of criminals is equal to the number of victims if each criminal commits one crime on one victim.  However, criminals often commit multiple crimes (repeat offenders).  And a single crime can affect multiple victims (ex. a family is robbed of their possessions).  ---  6/11/2004

Psychology, pathological, specific, crime.  ---  Mistaken views about organized crime.  (1) Some people have the mistaken belief that there is no organized crime.  (2) Some people have the mistaken belief that organized crime is a small and insignificant problem.  (3) Some people have the mistaken belief that nothing can be done about organized crime.  ---  11/25/2005

Psychology, pathological, specific, crime.  ---  One could argue that, to a certain extent, some people are afraid of thinking and speaking about crime, especially organized crime and corporate crime, due to fear of retribution by criminals.  ---  10/5/2005

Psychology, pathological, specific, crime.  ---  Organized crime.  (1) Organized crime is a big problem.  As can be seen from the example of the nations of Columbia and Russia, when government fails organized crime tries to move in.  Organized crime will even try to cause government to fail.  (2) Organized crime is a business.  Organized crime is a corporation.  It is ironic that some organized crime groups try to distance themselves from corporatism in their propaganda, because organized crime is a corporation.  Organized crime tries to make money by criminal means.  (2) Organized crime has its roots in bullying and gangs.  Bullys and gangs are the breeding ground of organized crime.  ---  5/13/2007

Psychology, pathological, specific, crime.  ---  Organized crime.  (1) Organized crime is a problem in every country, for example Italy, Russia, Columbia and United States of America.  (2) Organized crime begins with activities like extortion, gambling, prostitution, loan sharking, drugs.  (3) Then organized crime tries to infiltrate legitimate businesses like concrete, garbage, stock brokerages.  Organized crime tries to get into unions.  Organized crime tries to get into the construction industry by using tactics like bid rigging.  (5) Then organized crime tries to get into government.  Bribing officials.  Black mailing officials.  Trying to get their people into office.  (6) Organized crime uses threats, physical violence and murder.  (7) Organized crime are opportunists who bully to gain money and power.  ---  1/15/2005

Psychology, pathological, specific, crime.  ---  Politics, law and crime.  The trend throughout history has been that of recognizing the unethical nature of more and more actions, and then making those actions illegal.  The trend has been more laws, making more actions illegal, and thus more crime as a result of having more laws that make actions illegal.  Libertarians will sometimes use an invalid argument that fewer laws will mean less crime.  ---  11/25/2005

Psychology, pathological, specific, crime.  ---  Possible causes of crime.  (1) Impulse control problems.  Inability to control one's drives.  (2) Anger management problems.  Inability to control one's anger.  (3)(A) They were taught (or learned on their own) that it is okay to commit crimes.  (B) Or, they were never taught that it is not okay to commit crimes.  ---  9/13/1999

Psychology, pathological, specific, crime.  ---  Psychology and crime.  (1) Causes of crime.  (2) Effects of crime.  On  targets.  On public at large.  On criminal.  ---  6/11/2004

Psychology, pathological, specific, crime.  ---  Psychology of criminals.  Bullies often become criminals.  ---  11/25/2005

Psychology, pathological, specific, crime.  ---  Social injustice is a bigger category than crime.  Social injustice includes crime.  Social injustice also includes widespread, massive, systematic injustice.  Much social injustice is currently legal but still unjust.  ---  4/1/1999

Psychology, pathological, specific, crime.  ---  Sociology of crime.  Criminals often try to get other people to join them for several reasons.  (1) Sometimes the criminal mistakenly believes he is doing good.  (2) Sometimes the criminal wants to spread the blame, so that there is less blame on him.  (3) Sometimes the criminal is lonely in crime.  (4) Sometimes the criminal wants to build a criminal organization to commit more and bigger crimes.  (5) Sometimes the criminal wants a network of people to shelter him when he needs to hide.  (6) Thus, the criminal seeks to establish a network of accomplices and abettors.  (7) A criminal social structure develops.  The criminal seeks out desperate people.  The criminal seeks out ethically challenged people.  ---  11/25/2005

Psychology, pathological, specific, crime.  ---  Sociology of crime.  Obviously, the criminal does not like people talking about his criminal activities, so he may try to develop a culture of silence.  The criminal wants no ratting.  The criminal will try to intimidate others into silence.  ---  11/25/2005

Psychology, pathological, specific, crime.  ---  Sociology of crime.  People who commit unethical acts that are not legally classified as crimes often operate in similar ways as criminals who seek out both enablers and marks.  ---  11/25/2005

Psychology, pathological, specific, crime.  ---  Sociology of crime.  The criminal often tries to build his social network through entrapment.  The criminal tries to convince other people that they have been inextricably drawn into a criminal network.  Do not fall for that.  ---  11/25/2005

Psychology, pathological, specific, crime.  ---  Sociology of crime.  The criminal will extol a series of twisted pseudo-arguments to try to convince others to commit crime, and to try to explain away and excuse his own crimes.  The criminal will ask other people for blind support, loyalty and trust, with the request for no questions asked by the supporter.  The criminal looks for people easily convinced or easily intimidated.  That is to say, the villain looks for stooges in a similar way that the villain looks for marks.  ---  11/25/2005

Psychology, pathological, specific, crime.  ---  Some causes of criminal behavior and unethical behavior in general.  (1) Criminals often suffer from a lack of ethics.  Lack of ethics can come from two places, lack of empathy and lack of reasoning ability.  (A) Lack of empathy is a common feature of sociopaths.  A lack of emotional empathy can cause an highly intelligent person to engage in unethical behavior.  (B) Lack of general reasoning ability can lead to lack of ethical reasoning ability.  (2) Extreme egoism is another feature of criminals.  The criminal is often an extreme individualist.  ---  5/13/2007

Psychology, pathological, specific, crime.  ---  The criminal is a drain on society when preying on society.  The criminal is also a drain on society after being locked up.  ---  10/5/2005

Psychology, pathological, specific, crime.  ---  The criminals are one percent of the population, preying on ten percent of the population, and hoping that the other eighty nine percent of the population  will ignore it, because the criminal thinks that the rest of the population are unethical egotists much like the criminal.  ---  1/14/2006

Psychology, pathological, specific, crime.  ---  The people negatively affected by crime include not just the victims but many more people.  (1) The direct victim.  (2) The friends of the victims who grieve their dead or injured friends.  (3) The criminals, whether convicted or not, who debase their own lives through crime.  (4) The friends of the criminals, who grieve for the criminal and the path they have chosen.  (5) The general public who live in fear of the terror of criminals.  ---  10/5/2005

Psychology, pathological, specific, crime.  ---  The public's attitude toward crime is important.  (1) It is a mistake for people to view organized crime as a source of entertainment.  For example, the Sopranos.  (2) It is a mistake for people to glorify criminals.  For example, gangster rap music.  (3) It is a mistake for people to make excuses for criminals.  (4) It is a mistake for people to ignore crime or turn a blind eye to crime.  (5) It is a mistake for people to think that crime is not an important issue.  ---  10/5/2005

Psychology, pathological, specific, crime.  ---  There is a lot of anger toward society that comes out in crime.  A student who was tired of being picked on was a perpetrator of a recent school shooting.  People who are fed-up with being picked on are often involved in other acts of violence.  Don't pick on people.  Teach your kids not to pick on other kids.  And work with people who feel picked on.  ---  4/24/1999

Psychology, pathological, specific, crime.  ---  Ways the criminal attempts to excuse his actions.  Ways the criminal refuses to acknowledge his wrong doing.  ---  11/25/2005