Television these days shows a lot of stories about criminals and victims. Sometimes you can learn from them. I am going to discuss an example of this: the emotional feedback angle that many offenders use to fool us, manipulate us and, in doing so, inflict damage on us. Careers, reputations and personal lives are negatively impacted because correctional officers and staff fall victim to an offender manipulator.
Before I discuss what I mean by the ‘emotional feedback’ angle, let me tell you about a documentary that I was watching recently on a channel that focused on crime and criminals. It led me to do some research.
A church congregation was asked by the pastor to consider a plan to remodel the church in a major way, including building a 15,000 seat chapel, a swimming pool and three restaurants. The cost was prohibitive. He introduced a ‘real estate businessman.’ The ‘businessman’ had a plan that would pay for the new church building and make money for the congregation. The success of the project depended on donations from the congregation.
He said that a group of successful business people were behind the plan, all doing it for the “glory of God.” Parishioners invested sums ranging from amounts of $200 to $75,000. Their bond certificates titled ‘Favor of God’ were printed on the ‘businessman’s’ home computer. Then, as no surprise, the state securities exchange commission prosecuted the ‘businessman’ for fraud; he’s now in prison. He was a conman and had spent all the money. The church closed after the local banks repossessed it. (ABC news, 2005)
So how does this link to manipulation by offenders using emotional feedback? There is a connection, and everyone who works with inmates can learn from it. First, what is emotional feedback? Researcher Hans Toch defined emotional feedback as a key need of incarcerated offenders. According to Toch, emotional feedback is:
A concern about being loved, appreciated and cared for; a desire for intimate relationships that provide emotional sustenance and empathy. (Johnson, 2002)
In order to be loved/liked, appreciated and cared for, we like others to see us as worthy people deserving of friendship, love and empathy. In other words, offenders do not like to be seen as just criminals; they want to be seen as persons worthy of being befriended and liked. The manipulator carries this a step further.
In my manipulation classes, I talk about how offenders lie about themselves. For example, an offender hears that a new corrections officer, right out of the academy, is a new father. He talks all the time about his new child.
His field training officer tells him that offenders are ‘slick’ criminals; they have been accused or convicted of breaking the law. He should be wary and cautious about what he says around them. The officer talks to anyone who will listen about his new baby.
An offender hears him, sees an opening and starts talking to the new officer about his (the offender’s) children, how he misses them and that he cries after visits with his wife and kids. He works into conversations that it must be tough being a new father while working shift work and overtime.
The offender’s game? To get the officer to see him as a father, just like him. And to get the officer to see the offender as a father who also misses his children, just like the officer. The offender is hoping that the warnings to the officer about criminals fade and that the officer will look on him as a “nice guy, a fellow dad.”
After a while ,the offender may start asking the officer to bring in a cell phone so that he can call his kids, or take out a note to his wife at home that puts the officer in a precarious position, setting him up in a scheme to do what the offender wants or else get fired.
In using the emotional feedback angle, the offender wants to be viewed by the officer as someone other than a criminal; someone who needs a friend. The schemes vary from the scenario I described to an offender telling a officer that he or she heard that the officer is having relationship problems and they too just came through a nasty divorce, etc. This could lead to an offender flirting with the CO, feigning romantic interest, and finally sex.
Now consider this: these offenders may not have children or are not getting a divorce. They will fabricate stories and lie just to portray themselves as someone other than a criminal; deserving of emotional sustenance and empathy, or better yet sympathy from the officer.
Let’s revisit our church ‘businessman.’ He wanted the pastor and congregation to see him in a favorable light as a fellow Christian, working with them for their church and the “glory of God.” It threw them off their guard; apparently no one looked into his background. They trusted him. This is what the emotional feedback angle is all about; the offender is saying:
I am a person.
I am more than just a criminal, inmate or offender.
I want to be loved, be friended and cared for, just like you, the officer.
I am “not that bad.”
Trainers, in any orientation or training of staff that interacts with inmates, must clearly and plainly discuss the “emotional feedback” angle. Offenders/inmates in correctional facilities have been convicted of or accused of law-breaking. This has to be constantly on the staff’s minds while on the job. Yes, inmates are people. Yes, some have families and most have personal problems. But remember:
Never, never forget what brought them to your facility, and they are always first and foremost: criminal offenders. Period.
An inmate is an inmate is an inmate!
References:
Johnson, Robert. (2002). Hard Time: Understanding and Reforming the Prison, Third Edition. Belmont: Wadsworth-Thomson Learning.
Preacher’s Mega-Church Dreams End in Nightmare. (September 29, 2005). www.abcnews.go.com
Retrieved July 27, 2014.
