The Will to Crime
: Unpacking the Myth of Peer Pressure
Stanton E. Samenow’s Incisive Challenge to Conventional Wisdom on Delinquency
In a society grappling with the pervasive shadow of crime, particularly among its youth, the instinct to seek external culprits is powerful. "Bad company," "negative influences," and "peer pressure" are phrases that readily roll off the tongue, offering a comforting, if simplistic, explanation for delinquent behaviour. They echo through courtrooms, permeate public discourse, and are woven into the very fabric of popular culture – from the brooding streets of "West Side Story" to every parent's anxious whisper. Yet, in Inside the Criminal Mind, Dr. Stanton E. Samenow, a voice of uncompromising clarity, cuts through this comforting narrative with the precision of a surgeon's scalpel. In Chapter 3, "Peer Pressure: No Excuse for Crime," Samenow doesn't just challenge this widely held belief; he dismantles it, arguing with a blunt, almost brutal realism, that such notions serve merely as a convenient alibi, obscuring the stark, uncomfortable truth of individual choice and responsibility.
Samenow’s argument is not merely academic; it is an appeal to a tougher, more rigorous logic that many shy away from. He posits that criminals are not hapless victims, passively lured into wrongdoing, but rather active agents, exercising a perverse form of discernment. "Us kinds find each other," is the chillingly apt phrase he employs, suggesting a deliberate gravitation towards kindred spirits within the criminal ecosystem. This isn't accidental association; it's a calculated seeking-out, an internal radar guiding them towards those who share their disregard for law and order. The responsible young person, confronted with unsavoury companionship, will recognise the rot and extract themselves. The nascent criminal, however, sees not rot, but opportunity.
This active choice is underscored by a profound contempt for conformity. Samenow observes a startling disdain among those with developing criminal personalities for the "straight" life, for those who embrace responsibility and societal norms. The "preppies" are mocked, and school is perceived as a "dog on a leash." This isn't teenage rebellion; it’s a foundational worldview that rejects the very structures underpinning civil society. Their trajectory is one of deliberate divergence, a conscious rejection of the path trodden by the majority.
Even the seemingly innocuous act of "hanging out" takes on a sinister hue when scrutinised through Samenow's lens. Where conventional teenagers might flock to a shopping centre for socialisation or a casual purchase, for the criminally inclined, it becomes a staging ground for illicit activities – a recce mission to case merchandise, an opportunity to instigate disruption. The difference lies not in the location, but in the intent, the underlying cognitive architecture that dictates behaviour.
Furthermore, Samenow utterly dismisses the notion that criminals are dependent on external stimuli for their nefarious schemes. They are, he contends, fertile grounds for ideas, actively cultivating and pursuing exciting, illicit enterprises. Early transgressions, far from being deterrents, are treated as learning experiences – not in remorse, but in evasion. The book presents vivid, if disturbing, accounts of individuals like 'Sandy' and 'Jonas', whose criminal careers escalated not through peer inducement, but through a self-driven exploration of their own illicit proclivities, seeking out accomplices only when the ambition of their crimes demanded it.
A particularly fascinating, and frankly, unsettling, aspect of Samenow's analysis is the delinquent's preoccupation with an image of invincibility. Despite often harbouring deeply concealed fears – of the dark, of physical vulnerability – these individuals engage in risky behaviours, from audacious dares to self-inflicted pain, to cultivate "street cred." Police encounters, rather than inducing fear or shame, become twisted badges of honour. It's a performative toughness, a desperate attempt to project a hardened exterior demanded by their chosen path, even if it belies an inner fragility they cannot, or will not, acknowledge.
Yet, despite their group activities, Samenow argues that criminals are, at their core, "loners." Their connections are superficial, transactional, devoid of genuine empathy. The terrifying example of Ted Bundy serves to illustrate this point – a charming exterior masking a predatory interior, the personality a tool for manipulation, not connection. True social isolation, when it occurs among these individuals, is often not a consequence of being bullied, but a direct result of their menacing and repellent behaviour.
Finally, Samenow tackles two of society's most deeply entrenched excuses for criminal behaviour: bullying and gang membership. He acknowledges the genuine pain inflicted by bullying but draws a crucial distinction between victims who seek help or internalise their suffering and those who actively choose a path of victimisation, becoming bullies themselves or seeking power through inflicting misery. Neither, he argues, is an automatic precursor to criminality; both are choices. Similarly, gang membership is not a desperate search for a missing "family." It is a conscious, active choice to join an organisation whose primary purpose is the ruthless pursuit of objectives and the reinforcement of individual, albeit twisted, importance. The contrasting paths of brothers Jos é and Pedro in a gang-infested neighbourhood powerfully illustrate that even in the most challenging environments, individuals retain agency.
Samenow’s work is a bracing splash of cold water to the face for anyone clinging to the palliative comfort of externalised blame. He compels us to look squarely at the individual, to confront the uncomfortable truth that crime often stems not from circumstance or coercion, but from a fundamental choice, a distinct pattern of thinking that finds solace and reinforcement among those who share its twisted logic. It's a tough pill to swallow, this unwavering emphasis on accountability, but it is precisely this unflinching gaze into the criminal mind that offers any hope of genuinely understanding and, perhaps, even disrupting, its destructive trajectory. It demands a recalibration of our conventional wisdom, a grittier, more realistic assessment of where the blame truly lies. And that, in itself, is a profoundly educational, if unsettling, endeavour.
Citations:
Samenow, S. E. (2014). Inside the Criminal Mind (Revised ed.). Crown Forum. (Specific reference to Chapter 3: "Peer Pressure: No Excuse for Crime").
Event Portfolio
Street Portfolio