The Different Ways Criminals Thinking

When a criminal commits a crime, what is he thinking? Does he know he is doing wrong? Or does he think he is doing nothing wrong? In this paper I hope to inform my readers of the different ways criminals think.

Sometimes a person might not know what he is doing is wrong. Take my experience for example. When me and my friends went into that abandoned building we did not think we were doing wrong. We were just four kids trying to have fun by exploring an abandoned building. Little did we know that we were committing a felony. Now yes looking back, I admit it wasn't the brightest decision I have ever made, and I know it was wrong. But at the time, we had no worries cause we did not think about the possible consequences. Some people on the other hand, know that they are doing wrong but just don't care, or just do it anyways.

When I was preparing to write this paper, I did some online research. I went to a plethora of websites but all the ones I went to said the same statement: "Criminals do not think like your average law abiding citizen." The average law abiding citizen wants to be left alone to live their life the best they can. Perhaps they have a family to provide for, or maybe they do volunteer work, or maybe they join in support for a cause. Most citizens just want to live their life to the best of their ability, but not criminals.

Criminals do not think that the law applies to them. A lot of the time, they are only thinking of themselves and what they want. If criminals had a theme song it would be the chorus from "It's all about me!" While everyone is to some degree or the other selfish, criminals, violent and angry people take it to extremes. They believe that it is all about them. They might see something they want and they take it. They don't think about the other person (the one they are taking from) because all they care about is what they want. They want stuff and don't believe they should have to work to get that stuff. Many times the criminal looks down upon those that have jobs and work hard for what they have. They think of themselves as better than those that have jobs and abide by the law. One example of how a criminal might think is, "Why would you work hard for that car when you could just walk up and steal it?" A criminal might have the mindset of, "I will do what I want when I want to." They do believe they can do whatever they want. Most criminals could be compared to a rebellious child.

In my quest to find the different ways that criminals think, I stumbled upon the central Florida psychology website. According to them, there are 8 different kinds of criminal thinking patterns. There is mollification, cutoff, entitlement, power orientation, sentimentality, super-optimism, cognitive indolence, and discontinuity.

Mollification is the first of 8 different criminal thinking patterns. When criminals use this pattern they seek to play down the seriousness of past criminal conduct and current interpersonal conflicts by blaming problems on external circumstances, making excuses for their behavior, pointing out unfairness in the world, or de-valuing their victims. These criminals might blame other people for their problems or might blame their problems on other outside influences. They try not to take responsibility for their actions. They always say that it is somebody else's fault, not theirs.

Cutoff is the second of the 8 different criminal thinking patterns. In this pattern, with practice, the lifestyle criminal eliminates normal feelings which deter criminal action through a simple phrase ("forget-it"), image, or musical theme. In some cases the offender will use drugs or alcohol to cutoff fear, anxiety, guilt, or other common deterrents to criminal activity. This could be compared to someone turning off their conscience. These criminals feel no ping of guilt and think that they can do whatever they want.

Entitlement is the third of the 8 criminal thinking patters. In this pattern, the lifestyle criminal believes that he is entitled to violate the laws of society and the rights of others by way of an expressed attitude of ownership ("its mine"), privilege ("I'm above the law"), or by labeling wants as needs ("I needed a new car, expensive clothing, a trip to Vegas, etc."). These criminals feel