Straight Talk about Criminals

by Stanton E. Samenow

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.