Positive Theory Of Lonnie Athens

When people watch the news or hear about someone who performs a violent criminal act, the first question arises: Why? There are many theories to why people perform these acts. They were raised in a “bad” environment. They weren’t “loved” enough as a child. They are “crazy.” Lonnie Athens was a man who was raised in a violent home. His father was abusive and controlling. Athens witnessed his father being abusive to his mother, himself and others. He saw his father commit racist acts. The family lived in inner city homes where violence was an everyday occurrence. Just as any child growing up, Athens had two choices to make; continue the cycle of abuse or stop (or change) it. Athens took on the first perspective. He became extremely curious as …show more content…
This is called the Positive Theory. An influential person in Athens life was a Greek Orthodox Priest, Father Dombalis. Dombalis was aware of Athens’ situation at home and became a mentor for Athens. Athens would escape to a library and read books that raised questions about behavior. Athens would return to Dombalis with questions. They would sit and talk for hours. When Athens started his college education, his first roommate was Mike Markowitz. They were opposite in culture and upbringing, yet they would talk for hours about criminology (even though Athens began in the political science field, not knowing what criminology was.) They would debate different theories and ideas. During these first couple years, Athens became more serious about his studies. He left the fraternity he was in, married and began a quest to interview prison inmates. Athens needed to hear firsthand accounts from the actors of violence. This wasn’t as easy as he had though it would be. Most criminals have already made up an account of their actions that may or may not be true. Actors had a story they told everyone else and then there was the …show more content…
Athens comes up with another part of his theory that he calls a “phantom community.” This community is essentially the voices one hears in their mind and thoughts. It can be the voices of things one has heard significant others (anyone who is emotionally close, such as family members, friends, gang members, school mates, etc.) say. It never leaves someone; it’s the presence of everyone one has known. He says it’s a hidden course of emotion (pg 83,) including hate, anger, fear and love (some of the basic emotions every human is born with.) This is where Athens says that violent actors find justification in their acts of violence. It’s as if the voices control the thoughts and therefore the actions of the actor. He also finds three types of self images among the violent actors that stems from their phantom communities. 1. Violent (self image): have two identifying signs, one, actors feel they are and seen by others as having a violent disposition. Second, they see themselves (and others would say) they have violent personal traits such as, hot tempered, ignite easily, and forceful. An example of this would be a lead gang member, who acts violently towards new gang members when they don’t follow gang