Dr. Samenow and Dr. Yochelson conducted a 14-year study with 255 criminal participants to develop an understanding of criminal thinking patterns. Their research challenged the prevailing view that environmental factors like poverty or abuse cause crime, finding that individuals make choices in how they respond to their environment. The study identified common thought patterns of criminals, including being restless and dissatisfied, feeling no obligation to others, and seeking excitement at any cost. It also found that focusing treatment on identifying and challenging criminal thinking errors can positively impact offenders.

2. Dr. Samenow and Dr. Yochelson
developed the evidence base for criminal
thinking patterns by working with
criminals in a mental hospital. Their
project spanned 14 years and 255
participants from various backgrounds
(black, white, inner city, suburbs,
wealthy, poor, etc.) The study was
conducted over 7 years. 2

3. 
“ . . . the prevailing thinking was (and still is
in many quarters) that people are influenced
or forced into crime by poverty, divorce,
abusive parents, peer pressure, and other
environmental factors.”
 “Virtually every man in our study had at least
one sibling who had overcome adversity or, at
least, had responded to it without victimizing
others.” 3

4. 
“More critical than specific environmental
factors is how human beings choose to deal
with the environment in which they find
themselves.”
4

5. 
5
Criminals:
Are restless,
dissatisfied and
irritable
While at school,
considered requests
from their teachers
and parents as
impositions
Are habitually angry
Want to live life of
excitement, at any cost
Continually set
themselves apart from
others
Are lacking empathy
Feel no obligation to
anyone or anything
except their own
interests
Are poor at
responsible decision-
making, having pre-
judged situations

6. 
“It is important in understanding who the
criminal is not to confuse the victimizer
with the victim.”
“When held accountable, criminals often
blame circumstances. And, if they don’t come
up with enough excuses for crime on their
own, mental health and others supply more.”
6

7. 
“. . . the environment can make it easier or more
difficult to commit and get away with crimes by the
presence or absence of deterrents.”
 “If firearms are easy to obtain, most people will
not use them. If the criminal can readily have
access to a gun, he may seek revenge in a more
lethal manner than he would if the gun were
not at hand. The issue is not the presence of the
gun, but the psychological makeup of the
user.” 7

8. 
“A significant difference exists between
the psychological makeup of a person who
struggles to improve his situation and that
of an individual who focuses on proving
that he will have ultimate control and
prevail in any situation, no matter the costs
to others.”
8

9. 
“Consider the person laid off from his job
whose family depends on his wages.”
 “Some unemployed workers become depressed,
anxious, or resentful.”
 “Others become determined to do whatever they must
to find a new job as quickly as possible.”
 “It takes a particular sort of mind to plot revenge and
return to one’s former place of employment and
retaliate by shooting one’s former supervisor.”
9

10. 
“The youngster with the incipient criminal
personality reacts to consequences differently
from his responsible counterpart.”
 “Every boy who steals a candy bar does not become a
one-man crime wave.”
 “For most young first-time shoplifters who are caught
and punished, that is the end of the thievery.”
 “Not so for others, who conclude that the next time
they need to be slicker to avoid detection.”
10

11. 
“The individual who is extreme in these
thinking errors pursues excitement by doing
the forbidden and builds himself up at the
expense of others.”
 “Human relationships are seen by these people as
avenues for conquest and triumph.”
 “Any means to self-serving ends, including deception,
intimidation, and brute force, are employed without
considering the impact on others.”
11

12. 
“An initially dismaying distortion was that the
Yochelson-Samenow approach is devoid of
compassion, that it is ‘hardline’ and unrelentingly
confrontive and potentially destructive.”
 “One can be confrontive without being provocative or
harsh. In fact, harshness will evoke anger in return.”
 “Compassion is expressed not by sympathizing with the
criminal who has created his own predicament; instead, it is
demonstrated by a dedication to work tirelessly with people
whom many deem hopeless and prefer to incarcerate and
forget.” 12

13. 
“The great majority of offenders eventually
will be released.”
 “Once the individual returns to the
community, the criminal mind functions as it
did before confinement and during
incarceration. Therefore, it is in society’s
interest to find more effective ways to help
offenders change.”
13

14. 
“By holding the criminal completely responsible
for his actions . . . Criminals are told that none of
their hard-luck stories are relevant. The
circumstances of their lives are of no concern. They
are not victims . . . the heart of this program is the
premise that a man is capable of choosing between
good and evil.”
 (From interview w/Dr. Samenow; “Society Doesn’t Cause Crime, Says Dr.
Stanton E. Samenow; Criminals Do Because they Enjoy it,” by David Van
Biema; posted 5/12/84, People)
14

15. 
“. . . from workers in the trenches
(professionals who deal with criminals
every day) that focusing on ‘errors in
thinking’ had a strong and positive impact
on offenders.”
 “The concepts were clear.”
 “Errors of thinking and obstructive tactics
were readily observable.”
15

16. 
http://www.samenow.com/concept.html
Dr. Stanton E. Samenow - Bio
 Dr. Samenow received his B.A. (cum laude) from Yale University in 1963 and his
Ph.D. in psychology from the University of Michigan in 1968. After working as a
clinical psychologist on adolescent inpatient psychiatric services in the Ann Arbor
(Michigan) area, he joined the Program for the Investigation of Criminal Behavior
at St. Elizabeths Hospital in Washington, D.C. From 1970 until June, 1978, he was
clinical research psychologist for that program. With the late Dr. Samuel
Yochelson, he participated in the longest in-depth clinical research-treatment
study of offenders that has been conducted in North America. The findings of that
study are contained in the three volume publication The Criminal Personality
(Lanham, Md.: Roman and Littlefield) that he co-authored with Dr. Yochelson. Dr.
Samenow received his B.A. (cum laude) from Yale University in 1963 and his Ph.D.
in psychology from the University of Michigan in 1968. After working as a clinical
psychologist on adolescent inpatient psychiatric services in the Ann Arbor
(Michigan) area, he joined the Program for the Investigation of Criminal Behavior
at St. Elizabeths Hospital in Washington, D.C. From 1970 until June, 1978, he was
clinical research psychologist for that program. With the late Dr. Samuel
Yochelson, he participated in the longest in-depth clinical research-treatment
study of offenders that has been conducted in North America. The findings of that
study are contained in the three volume publication The Criminal Personality
(Lanham, Md.: Roman and Littlefield) that he co-authored with Dr. Yochelson.