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The author believes that masochistic motives are to be found in the criminal to a greater extent than we may at first suspect. The criminal act may be the surface manifestation of an unverbalized inner conflict, something that
partakes of a 'fatal necessity'. Such a criminal is no more able to explain his conduct than the psychoneurotic patient is able to explain his symptoms or the masochist his suffering. In these cases punishment tends to create a moral sanction for further forbidden gratifications. It is possible that the denial of punishment would be a worse penalty for the masochist, who would thereby be forced to find the solution for his conflicts in a more socially accepted manner. When the sentence is served he may have the illusion of having settled his accounts, but when liberated into the community and he meets with fancies or real rebuff, it arouses his hostility again, which he feels justified in carrying out violently on the community. The penitentiary becomes his refuge as a substitute for a maternal protective situation and a place where he finds the mutually sympathetic fellowship of other sufferers.
Some cases are reported which show a masochistic personality structure but are not analyzed to the point of a deeper genetic understanding of the masochistic motivations.