You do not currently have permission to view the full text for this document. Please sign in to an account with an active subscription or contact support.
Leaving out the psychotic criminal, Dr. Asch classifies committers of crime into “normals” who may, under the pressure of certain circumstances, act out unacceptable impulses; neurotic characters whose criminal acts stem from such neurotic determinants as a need to seek punishment to assuage irrational feelings of guilt; and “real” criminals, the sociopaths with defective superego development. Left out of this classification are the numerous crimes committed by individuals who are in tune with the customs and values of the subculture which they inhabit, and who are behaving normally and acceptably in the terms of that subculture.
One cannot say that these individuals are normals who have fallen prey to unacceptable impulses, since they find what they do acceptable, and so does their culture. They are not neurotic, and one cannot describe them as having superego defects unless one considers superego structure to be independent of the cultural values which it precipitates and transmits—a position which I do not think Dr. Asch would take.
I think it is extremely difficult to differentiate the behavior of this group from that of the so-called real criminals or sociopaths, a designation which does not have a great deal of empirical support and which runs the risk of being used as a label to justify the values of the dominant culture. I fear that when Dr. Asch suggests the use of indefinite separation from society for those whom he classifies as incorrigible sociopaths, he is providing society with a psychiatric rationalization for its failure to deal fairly and effectively with the economically depressed and minority groups to which these individuals belong.