Lame Excuses

At some point in all our lives, this victim perspective has surfaced in order to excuse and justify our irresponsible and criminal behavior - especially after we have been caught. Many of us contend that we committed our crimes because of:


• drugs

• a drug addiction

• the people we hung around with

• our race

• our socioeconomic standing

• a lack of education

• our family life

• society in general

• and even the victim


And most of us have complained at some point that we are in prison because someone snitched on us, we were set up, or the system screwed us. Indeed, we have used almost every form of self-deceit and deception to maintain our unrealistic self-image and hide from the reality of the fact that we are who we are, and where we are, because of choices we have made.

In essence, what we are telling ourselves when we maintain a victim perspective is that we don’t have total control over our own lives. Therefore, when we fail or get caught, we don’t have to personally accept the full responsibility for our own choices or the consequences which are simply the result of these choices. With a victim perspective, our self-image doesn’t suffer when we fail or are not perfect. In reality, however, this unrealistic perspective and the excuses it provokes are simply cop-outs that we use to justify a lack of effort and an unwillingness to follow the rules or take responsibility for our own lives.

Yet, even though these excuses and the victim perspective serve to diminish the control we have over our own lives, they in no way absolve us of responsibility for the consequences of our choices and behavior. Sadly, by convincing ourselves that we are the victims, we actually perpetuate our criminality, because we excuse and justify our criminal behavior. We erroneously convince ourselves that we are exonerated of responsibility for our behavior. So, we are able to forego the feelings of guilt, remorse, and sorrow that would force us to recognize and confront our criminal behavior and compel us to change.

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