Can you really watch too much Dr. Phil?

I don’t watch him at all, although I do see him in advertisements or some silly stuff every now and then, so I don’t really know.

The idea of getting into the minds of criminals is twofold. The simplest is if you know how they are thinking, you are more likely to catch them and stop them. You might also recognize the signs of someone getting ready to commit a criminal act against you or others. There’s nothing wrong with understanding criminal thinking to avoid that.

The second is to understand why people commit crimes and stop them before they do it., or to change their minds after catching them so they stop committing crimes. The reason we no longer talk about dungeons and prisons but rather penitentiaries is that we decided they were places to repent of sins associated with crimes and put them behind them.

It didn’t work, but that was the idea.

It can’t work because we also have freedom of expression, free will, weak humans and people who will tell each other about criminal actions or enterprises. Some will be tempted because they can see a gain in it. Outlaw drug dealing but keep it profitable and some will go into drug dealing.

Some will be tempted just out of curiosity. The, “I wonder if I could get away with robbing a convenience store?” crowd. Once they get started, they don’t always stop or don’t stop before major harm is done to others. (To balance things out, we also have people who hate to see known, proven criminals convicted because that will keep them from becoming doctors, pharmacists, police, teachers later in life. “He’d make a good teacher if he just didn’t have that rape conviction on his record, it sure is a shame about the record.“ “He’d make a fine policeman if he just didn’t have that robery conviction on his record, it sure is a shame about the record.“ Or maybe not, who knows what the laws are nowadays?)

There are copycats. The, “Hey, I never thought about shooting up a school!” group. You will notice an increase in all kinds of crimes right after they are widely reported in the news. The alternative is to not report it and not warn the future victims.

There are those who put family above anything and will beat up or kill folks for retribution. These people are mad when a mother turns in her own son at the start of his criminal career because they consider protecting him here and now more important than keeping him from getting killed down the road.

And since you can’t raise other people’s children for them and they have minds of their own anyway, crimes will persist and we will continue to wonder how we could have stopped them in the first place. Remember the campaign to be sure to lock your car and don’t leave the keys in it? DON’T MAKE A GOOD BOY GO BAD was the slogan. A good boy won’t steal anyway, and one who only refrains from stealing or committing any other crime out of fear of getting caught isn’t good in the first place.

But none of us is really good, not completely good (no matter how close some are) in the first place.

I guess there are also those who like to delve in the miseries of others to make our own lives look better. Mine sure looks better than some of these poor souls.

David for taxing criminals higher than non criminals for life

If I’m reading this correctly, he was stealing from the father of the deputy who worked the call.

Note to self: If deciding to steal for a new trade, do not steal from those involved in law enforcement or their relatives.

But wouldn’t that potentially be everybody?

Note to self: Don’t go into theft as a new trade.