Many psychologists believe that a child is born neither good nor
bad, but with tendencies toward both beneficence and criminal-
ity. I believe there is no instinct of criminality nor any natural
tendency toward malevolence in the child. Criminality appears
in a child as a perverted form of love. It is a radical expression of
cruelty. It too springs from lack of love.

One day, one of my pupils, a boy of nine, was playing a game
and was pleasantly crooning to himself, "I want to kill my
mother." It was unconscious behavior, for he was making a
boat, and all his conscious interest was directed toward that ac-
tivity. The fact is that his mother lives her own life, and seldom
sees him. She does not love him, and unconsciously he knows it.

But this boy--one of the most lovable of children--did not
start out in life with criminal thoughts. It is simply the old
story: if I can't get love, I can get hate. Every case of criminality
in a child can be traced to lack of love.

Another pupil, also nine, had a phobia of poison; he feared
that his mother would poison him. When she arose from the ta-
ble, he watched her every movement; and often he said, "I
know what you are after; you are going to get the poison for my
food." I suspected that it was a case of projection. His mother
seemed to give more love to his brother; and probably the neu-
rotic son had fantasies of poisoning both his brother and his
mother. His fears were probably fears of retribution--I want to
poison her, and perhaps she will poison me in revenge.

Crime is obviously an expression of hate. The study of crim-
inality in children resolves itself into the study of why a child is
led to hate. It is a question of injured ego.

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