Continuum of Criminality
Responsible
Irresponsible
Non-arrestable
Arrestable
Criminal
Extreme
Works hard: Productive
Unreliable
Stealing from jobs
Think as
Fulfills obligations
Lying
Shoplifting criminals from
Considerate of others Excuse Making
Abusing Others
an early age
Conscientious
Poor Performance Think like extreme
Frequent crimes
Cheating
criminal but with
Heavy injury to
Angry
lesser crimes
others
Blaming
Using Others
Personality Disorders
• Cluster B are the most common Diagnosis
found in the criminal community.
• These disorders often appear dramatic,
emotional, or erratic.
• Cluster B Personality Disorders include:
– Borderline Personality Disorder
– Narcissistic Personality Disorder
– Antisocial Personality Disorder
Thinking Errors
• Excuse making:
– Is a means of avoiding responsibility for not having honored a
commitment; reason used to deny accountability and therefore
sidestep consequences for one’s failure. Excuses usually involve things
rather than people.
• Blaming:
– Is when a person holds other people responsible for their pain, or take
the other tack and blame themselves for every problem they
encounter.
• Justifying:
– The process of making something right from something wrong by
listing reasons that validate this, thereby avoid feeling guilty.
Thinking Errors
• Redefining:
– Shifting the focus from one person to another, changing
topics of conversation from an undesirable one to a safe
one, or by “re-labeling” to make something OK.
• Super-optimism:
– Extremely “wishful” or “magical” thinking; establishing
unobtainable goals that are not realistic due to a lack of a
concrete plan of action; “I think-therefore it is”; attributing
more to something than that which really exists.
Thinking Errors
• Lying:
– The process of deception and dishonesty through
falsification of the facts.
The three forms of lying are:
– Commission:
Thinking Errors
• Making something up that is simply not true.
– Omission:
• Half-truths; saying partly what is so by leaving out major sections
to manipulate outcome.
– Assent:
• Faking agreement with someone (being phony) by responding
affirmatively to their input but without believing it.
Thinking Errors
• Making fools of:
– Causing embarrassment or harm to someone by elevating
your position at their expense. Often involves lying and
attempting to put someone down. This is an attitude
motivated by “getting” someone by overstating his or her
mistakes.
• Build-up:
– Exaggerating accomplishments and abilities to make
ourselves look better in the eyes of others (and often at
their expense), to counteract our lack of self-confidence
and esteem; to compensate for a weak ego.
Thinking Errors
• Assuming:
– Taking something for granted (thinking it to be true) and
acting on it without checking it out first. This leads to
faulty outcomes based on inaccurate beliefs.
• I’m unique:
– Seeing oneself as special and different in a way that
information applying to others doesn’t apply to them
(elevating to a position that is a “cut above” others); to
avoid conforming to commonly held standards.
Thinking Errors
• Ingratiating:
– Initiating hollow praise and phony agreements to
secretly manipulate someone into doing
something in return for you (out of obligation or
as a “pay back”).
• Fragmented personality:
– The process of being hypocritical; a double
standard where one’s behavior is inconsistent with
one’s alleged value system.
Thinking Errors
• Minimizing:
– To reduce or limit the true significance of a
behavior and avoid labeling it as “hurtful” or
“wrong” thereby eliminating the responsibility for
changing it.
• Vagueness:
– Speaking unclearly or nonspecifically to avoid a
concrete position; the absence of precise
statements enables one to escape being “pinned
down”.
Thinking Errors
• Anger:
– Manipulating, intimidating, or controlling others by
manufacturing aggressive emotions; to include a defensive
reaction by displaying “hostility.”
• Power play:
– Similar to anger but without the noticeable display of
emotions: to use authority; unfair advantages, or to coerce
someone’s compliance; subtle form of throwing a
“tantrum” to get one’s way.
Thinking Errors
• Victim playing:
– A “poor me” attitude of self-pity: projecting
helplessness to play on someone’s sympathies; to
feel sorry for oneself in a way that invites people
to take care of you.
• Drama-excitement:
– To act out theatrically to “stir things up”;
promoting gossip; to experience stimulation by
including turmoil in others (to alleviate one’s own
boredom by thrill seeking).
Thinking Errors
• Close channel:
– Selective filtering of incoming information; to shut down
or barricade against opinions that require one to change
one’s attitude or beliefs (to defend against a “perceived”
attack); often when angry.
• Ownership:
– A self-centered view that one can control or take unfair
responsibility or authority over someone or thing as if they
are a possession that one can dictate to; abuse of power in
a role-relationship.
Thinking Errors
• Image:
– To create a “front” or false impression; to camouflage through
misrepresentation of who one is; used as a defense to cover-up
perceived weaknesses or give up responsibility.
• Grandiosity:
– The process of being pretentious or pompous; attributing more to
oneself than really exists; exaggerating the value of one’s self
importance; to delegate to a false level; imposing grandeur over
others; or, making a problem “to big” to solve by overstating its
severity or underestimating our ability to solve it.
• Procrastination:
– To put off from day to day; to delay; to defer to a future time. To delay
action.
Tactics to Obstruct Treatment
• These tactics are demonstrations of the
thinking errors as they arise when a person is
held accountable in a program for change.
• The behavior described here is the criminal's
M.O. in accountability, or how the use of
thinking errors are evidenced in one’s
behavior.
Tactics to Obstruct Treatment
• The term “change agent” refers to anyone
responsible for promoting change in the
person who has committed a crime, from the
initial interviewer to program staff, therapist,
family member, supervisor and P.O.
Tactics to Obstruct Treatment
• Tactic 1.
Building Himself Up by Putting the Change Agent
Down - The criminal takes the offensive. He may use veiled
sarcasm (“you might not realize it, but....” or “I guess you
wouldn't happen to know that.....”) to indicate that he views
the change agent as ignorant, whereas he, the criminal, is an
expert. He may take what is a fault of his own and attack the
change agent on the defensive. If the change agent is intense,
the criminal calls him “angry.” If he is persuasive, the criminal
says he is “conning.” If he contrasts how he has had to
function in life with how the criminal has operated, the
criminal says that he is “boasting.” The criminal may choose to
define change agent's role or tactics in such a way
as to
deliberately embarrass or humiliate the change agent.
Tactics to Obstruct Treatment
• Tactic 2. Feeding the Change Agent What The
Criminal Thinks He Wants To Hear - This includes
following the rules and participating in programs.
Although a few refuse to cooperate, most put up a
facade of commitment, even if they are
simultaneously and secretly violating.
• The criminal carefully determines the change agent's
orientation, so that he can be fed what he wants to
hear. This is an exercise of power and control in
defrauding others to gain personal advantage.
Tactics to Obstruct Treatment
• Tactic 2 Continued
Specialized forms of this tactic include:
Confession.
Showing “Insight.”
Socializing and Leadership
Tailoring the Approach
Tactics to Obstruct Treatment
• a. Confession. Acknowledgement of wrongdoing
does not result in a
person's changing. In fact, it
may be used to avoid change. A criminal may think
that reporting his violations makes them acceptable.
In other words, to confess is to impress.
• Admitting small infractions often helps to conceal
major violations.
• The criminal sometimes confesses to things that he
did not do, if he wants to maximize the effect.
Tactics to Obstruct Treatment
• b. Showing “Insight.” It is a common pattern for a
criminal to admit to some wrongdoing for which he
has already been caught, show dramatic
understanding or "insight" as to why he did this act,
and then completely escape accountability for what
he did, and instead be complimented for his insight
and “progress.”
•
The criminal will adjust the style and language of his
“insights” to that of the change agent's he has to
deal with.
Tactics to Obstruct Treatment
• c. Socializing and Leadership - for criminals not
active in crime (as when they are involved in an
inpatient treatment program), leadership provides a
criminal equivalent; it is not a valid index of change.
We have seen unchanged criminals edit newspapers,
organize activities, preside over meetings, and
become active in many other functions. This
provides the power and excitement equivalent of
criminal activity.
Tactics to Obstruct Treatment
• d. Tailoring the Approach - The criminal’s style
of presenting himself is tailored to fit his
audience. He learns how to dress, what kind
of language to use, whether to give long or
short answers to questions and so forth......
• Usually the criminal tries to ingratiate himself
and shows and
exaggerated politeness.
Tactics to Obstruct Treatment
• Tactic 3. Feeding the Change Agent What The
Criminal Thinks He ought To Know - The criminal
believes he has the sole prerogative to decide what is
important. If a criminal is asked what he has been
doing during a specific period, he is likely to reply
“Nothing much.” If pressed, he may respond with
"It's personal," "Let's drop it,” “I'd rather not go in to
it,” or “I can't talk about it now.”
• What the criminal thinks is important enough to
remember is anything that puts him in a favorable
light.
Tactics to Obstruct Treatment
• Tactic 4. Lying - The habits of lying and concealing
are deeply ingrained in the criminal.
• Lies of omission are more common than lies of
commission. This is, the criminal will reveal part of
the truth about himself in a situation, and demand
full credit for his truthfulness, even if this served to
deliberately mislead and mis-represent the truth.
Tactics to Obstruct Treatment
• Tactic 5. Vagueness - The criminal is vague to avoid
being pinned down. He qualifies what he says with
expressions like, "you might say," "It could be put this
way," “It might be,” “Perhaps,” “Sometimes,” “In a
way,” “I guess,” “In a sense,” “Not necessarily," "To a
degree," and so on. He will give words idiosyncratic
meanings and leave it to other to figure out what he
is saying. When asked a question, he avoids giving a
direct answer. He uses generalization and empty
phrases— “We're getting along O.K.,” “We talked
about this and that.”
Tactics to Obstruct Treatment
• Tactic 6. Attempting To Confuse - The criminal uses
some deliberate methods specifically to confuse
issues. He offers inconsistent versions of a given
event. He shades, qualifies, distorts, and shifts
emphasis with each telling. He might accuse the
change agent of being the one distorted,
misrepresented, and misinterpreted. He will make a
point seriously but, when challenged later, claim that
he had been joking. He may accuse the change
agent of lacking a sense of humor.
Tactics to Obstruct Treatment
• Tactic 7. Minimization - In talking about his
behavior, the criminal tries to conceal the harm that
he is doing by deliberate understatement. He may
refer to the most flagrant violation as a “prank,”
“mischief,” or “just a mistake.”
• He dismisses the things that he thinks about and
insists that it's only what he does that
counts--he will even expect positive credit for not acting on
all of his criminal ideas.
Tactics to Obstruct Treatment
• Tactic 8.
Diversion - The kind of diversion that is best
known to anyone who has worked with criminals is their
bringing in irrelevant material. They try to interest the change
agent in sports, chess, photography, theater, current events,
or anything else other than their own criminal acts. They
don't want to learn, but to teach.
• Another diversion tactic is to label something as a “problem”:
and describe it at length, thus distracting the change agent
from more important issues.
• In trying to evade accountability, the criminal may divert by
talking about what other people do or did.
Tactics to Obstruct Treatment
• Tactic 9
Assent - Assent is the tactic of appearing to agree
with the change agent. It serves two purposes. First, by not
offering opposition, the criminal succeeds in cutting short the
discussion. Second, he gains the favor and goodwill of the
change agent.
• Agreeing to accept accountability for an inappropriate action
may be a form of this tactic.
• Verbal expressions such as “I guess so,” “You're right,” “I never
thought of it that way,” “It seems to make sense,” may be
instances of this tactic, or they may be sincere.
• The only way to differentiate genuine from tactical agreement
is to observe the criminal over time.
Tactics to Obstruct Treatment
• Tactic 10. Silence - The purpose of silence is to maintain
secrecy. The criminal does not want others intruding into his
mind. Silence is often a manifestation of his anger when
others attempt to do this.
• There are many ways of being silent. The criminal conveys
that he is not talking when he uses expressions like, “I don't
know,” “I don't care,” “My mind's a blank,” “No comment,” “I
forgot,” “Nothing happened,” “I can't explain it.”
• Sighing, shrugging, having a blank and innocent look on one's
face, all may convey the same determination to be silent.
Tactics to Obstruct Treatment
• Tactic 11. Selective Attention and Perception - For
the criminal, selective attention and perception form
a well-practiced tactic in which he ignores everything
unrelated to his present objective.
• The criminal attends to that which supports his
prejudgments and opinions and ignores the rest. He
may automatically construe a statement as being in
agreement with his position when actually the
opposite has been said.
Tactics to Obstruct Treatment
• Tactic 12.
Total Inattention - The agent of
change often thinks that the criminal is
listening when his mind is miles away. This
occurs in both individual and group sessions.
If the criminal is uninterested in what is being
said, he allows his physical presence and a few
nods of his head to indicate that he is
receptive. Mean- while, he turns his attention
to more exciting ideas.
Tactics to Obstruct Treatment
• Tactic 13. Tardiness and Missing Appointments When a criminal begins being late for his responsible
appointments or misses them altogether, and does
not offer an appropriate explanation, the agent of
change can be fairly certain that the criminal is doing
something irresponsible beyond missing the
appointment.
• This pattern is detectable even in an inpatient
treatment program. In an outpatient setting, failure
to keep such appointments is often the first
indication of serious criminal activity.
Tactics to Obstruct Treatment
• Tactic 14.
Misunderstanding - When he is
confronted by his failure to perform
responsibly, the criminal often claims that
there was a “mis-understanding” between
him and the agent of change.
"Misunderstandings" occur about meeting
times, who said what, and innumerable other
details.
Tactics to Obstruct Treatment
• Tactic 15. Generalizing a Point to Absurdity - An
agent of change may tell a criminal that, because he
lacks education and skills, he must consider a job in
which he is starting at the bottom. The criminal then
accuses the change agent of asking him to be a
flunky all his life.
• A criminal may lose his temper at someone and
verbally abuse them. He offers the excuse that the
change agent asked him to be fully disclosing, and
that he was merely expressing what he felt.
Tactics to Obstruct Treatment
• Tactic 16.
Deliberate Postponement Postponement is a tactic when it is used to
escape responsibilities the criminal has no
intentions of meeting. He may say things like,
“I wasn't ready yet,” "I can't change
overnight,” “I have to do things one at a time,
not all at once,” “What do you want, blood?”
Tactics to Obstruct Treatment
• Tactic 17. Claiming He Has Changed Enough to Leave
the Program - The criminal will say things like, “I have
to make my own mistakes,” “I've got to try it sooner
or later,” etc.
• There may be some truth in these remarks.
However, one can perceive how the criminal uses
this argument as a screen for his decisions to
continue criminal patterns.
Tactics to Obstruct Treatment
• Tactic 18.
Attack - The criminal attempts to put the agent of change
on the defensive. He will point out the smallest errors in the agents of
change. He will be hypercritical, sarcastic, and derogatory. If he thinks he
can get away with it, he will be blatantly abusive, and even threaten
violence.
• He may threaten to spoil the reputation or the status of the change agent.
He uses anger to regain control, and to silence the change agent. The
criminal may accuse the change agent of almost anything--- using the
criminal as a guinea pig, being racist, and so forth. He will accuse the
agent of change of being guilty of the same criminality as the criminal.
• In doing this, the criminal is struggling desperately to maintain his good
opinion of himself, and is fighting efforts to expose him for what he is.