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38 Int. J. Offender Therapy & Comp. Criminology 1 (1994)

handle is hein.journals/ijotcc38 and id is 1 raw text is: EDITORIAL Apples Versus Oranges: Or, Are We All Apples? Edward M. Scott E. B. White (1977) reflected, Only a person who is congenitally self- centered has the effrontery and the stamina to write essays (p. vii). The editor of a professional journal-especially when he writes editorials-is not far removed from White's essayist. Perhaps, he has even more effrontery. Having not only effrontery, but lacking discipline as well, the following comes to mind. When some (maybe most) people, including professional and lay, think about offenders (inmates, criminals), they believe a difference (significant) exists between offenders and nonoffenders. If so, it is difficult to compare apples and oranges. Yet, if one (as I have for years) asks offenders how they differ from nonoffenders, they simply say, We've just been caught. This is their way of saying, We're all apples. Others might suggest that some apples have fallen a little farther from the tree; or, some apples have rolled down the hill; while a few have run away as did the gingerbread man. In any case, it's either due to genetics (a really different apple) or to environmental factors (the hill). Patterson and Kim (1991) found in their research (based on 2,000 Americans) some revealing - perhaps troubling - data. These two research- ers claimed to have employed a cathartic method to gain information regarding what people, really believe, as opposed to what we think we're supposed to believe (p. 5). For the present focus, I will mention only a couple of their findings, namely, 7% stated they would murder for money. That's one in every fourteen people (p. 65). Patterson and Kim pointed out that the people interviewed might not actually murder, but too many individuals at least considered it. We need caution not to suggest that thoughts, ideas, or feelings are necessarily translated into action. Yet-and this is important -America is the most violent nation (homicide) when compared to eleven other developed countries (Patterson & Kim, p. 120). We might reflect that, although the majority of people would not murder for money, others murder out of hatred, jealousy, greed, power, and so on. Are we - on the surface - rather different (apples vs. oranges) but underneath alike-apples, just different apples. International Journal of Offender Therapy and Comparative Criminology, 38(1), 1994 from the SAGE Social Science Collections. All Rights Reserved.

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