Atkins points out that Raskolnikov's crime was a result of the interplay between certain biological forces and the molding influences of environment and culture. He resents or refuses the various hypothetical evaluations of the abstract man and of human nature, but stresses the importance of each culture in producing specific patterns of behavior. 'Crime is a symptom of social disease and Czarist Russia deserved its Raskolnikovs just as today America deserves its gangsters.' The author emphasizes the importance of guilt feelings and particularly of unconscious guilt in relation to crime. Atkins also maintains that the 'great man' is only the symbolic representative of the social forces in which he lives. He concludes that society must modify or alter educational, environmental, economic conditions; the individual must acquire such understanding and self-knowledge as to learn the true personal and social significance of criminal behavior, and here again society must organize the necessary facilities.