by Victoria Rose Perkins

Created on: July 10, 2011   Last Updated: December 28, 2011

Is a criminal a complicated creature?  What makes a person commit crimes? In the book, "Inside the Criminal Mind," written by Dr. Stanton Samenow, he asks an important question, "Is crime the only choice that some people have in order to survive? I saw crime as almost being normal, if not excusable, a reaction to grinding poverty, instability and despair, that prevaded the criminals lives."

However, when Dr. Samenow dug deeper by extensive research, it changed his outlook. He continues, "Criminals choose to commit crimes.  Crime is caused by the way the person thinks, not by his envioronment."

When a crime has been commited it simply adds up to the fact, the criminal had a chance to think first, even momentarily, and then made a decision to commit the act.

So, what is a criminal? Let's get real. A criminal is not a victim, he is a victimizer. Some professionals believe criminal behavior is caused by bad parenting, poverty, and lack of good opportunities. How ever a criminal is defined, one truth emerges. That is, a criminal has free will. So does everyone else.

Every criminal act is preceded by a thought. This points out that committing a crime only requires thinking. It could be days, hours, or sudden opportunity that arises, but the point is, the criminal had to "think" first. He had free will and made a decision. In turn, a criminal commits crimes by free choice.

Often times, Criminal Justice means justice for the criminal. A criminal takes advantages (with the help of his attorney) of every technicality available. He may do the crime, but he may not serve the time. Instead, the victim serves the time by loss of peace, security, and material items, or perhaps their very own life.

Untold numbers of people have suffered injustice, witnessed domestic violence, were neglected as children, grew up in crime-infested areas, but they turn out to be good responsible members of society.

A criminal makes a deliberate choice to commit a crime. It is not nature, or nurture, or a harsh environment that creates felons. Its a persons failure to govern their own bad thoughts, and instead, acts upon them.

A criminal can be someone who literally does get away with murder over a technicality. For instance, some years ago, a woman murdered her husband and put him in a trunk. She ended up leaving the body in the trunk on their lawn. She could not lift the trunk by herself to place the body in the back of her car. Then she left and visited her sister in the next town.

The town was small. A patrolling police officer noticed the trunk sitting on the lawn and no obvious activity about the premises. He looked in the trunk and discovers the body. They located the wife and she freely admitted she killed him.

When she went to trial, the charges against her were dismissed. Why? Simply because the police officer did not have a search warrant when he opened the trunk and the body could not be used as evidence. Absurd? Yes. However, she got away with murder.

In summation, a criminal is someone who thinks of how to commit a crime, and then acts on it. Criminals are not complicated to understand. They are simply people who choose of their own free will to hurt others for selfish gain.

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