The idea seems to be that criminals are just like the rest. of us, just with a bad social environment that (key point) they share with the rest of us. If all of the rest of us become good-thinkers, the criminal's environment naturally changes accordingly, and she will not even think of doing bad things again.
It is therefore vitally important that bad thoughts never creep into your mind, because that opens the way for bad thoughts to enter the criminal's mind--making you culpable for the resulting crimes.
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The idea runs very deep that environment causes everything, and that genetics, prenatal influence, and character count for nothing. If you bring those up, people immediately go "Oh, right! Those are really important!" But then they default the next morning to environment-only again.
And somehow they (and I, because I'm blamed if I don't join them) have agency to create an environment, but the others do not.
"But I am happy; now I’ve learned the lesson this has taught/That everything I do that’s wrong is someone else’s fault." -- "Jolly Old Sigmund Freud", by Anna Russell
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