Synopses & Reviews
Synopsis
In an unusually user-friendly forum, the co-author of the widely respected three-volume study The Criminal Personality addresses the questions posed by professional audiences during his speaking engagements of the past twenty years about causes, characteristics, and treatment of antisocial behavior. Stanton Samenow's responses, informed by his research and clinical experience with criminal populations, assess environmental influences, social and familial; discuss bio-genteic factors and differential mental capacities and mental illnesses; and identify patterns, preventions, and interventions as well as issues of sentencing, confinement, and habilitation. "I am a clinical psychologist with the kind of practice few others have or want to have", Dr. Samenow says, referring to the hundreds of men, women, and children he has interviewed, evaluated, and counseled. The perspectives and recommendations he shares here are rooted in and distilled from that practice; they constitute an accessible, authoritative digest.
Synopsis
Is there a genetic predisposition to crime? Should mental illness be taken into account? Do family and social environments have a role? Do people become abusers because they have been abused? How can people who do terrible things consider themselves good people? What should someone involved in a relationship with a criminal know? Stanton Samenow, co-author of the widely respected three-volume study of The Criminal Personality, has collected the questions posed by audiences during his speaking engagements of the past twenty-eight years about causes, characteristics, and treatments of antisocial behavior. Now he draws on his research and clinical experience with hundreds of men, women, and children to offer no-frills answers that embody his informed perspectives on some of the toughest policy issues facing individuals, institutions, and governments today.