until I worked next to a parolee on a part time job several years ago. The company did background checks on new hires. Following labor laws, they did not discriminate against people with a record, but did screen out anyone whose crime was related to the company's business. Also, the crime had to have been committed at least 7 years prior to hiring.
Until taking that part time job for extra income, my experience and knowledge of the legal system had been limited to films, books, and my own traffic tickets and divorce. The job involved handling the company's customer service complaints over the phone. So I sat at a desk next to a parolee convicted of burglary and rape. I learned about that from another co-worker who recognized the new hire's name from an old newspaper article.
The parolee, "John," talked about himself during down times and training sessions. He was 34 years old when parolled and found an 18 year old high school senior for a girlfriend who was estranged from her family due to abuse. He persuaded her to quit school and live with him. He "generously" paid for her phone and controlled all her outside contacts. He lived near the office and rushed home on breaks and lunch to check up on her.
But, like a child, he sought advice from me and another female co-worker on how to "handle" his relationship. He had zero concept of what was healthy. He bragged that he would make millions of dollars on some magazine ad for "quick money" and would buy out the company that we worked for. He was obsessed with power and control over others. Ironically, though, he respected the two of us that he asked for advice because we were direct and honest with him.
He told me about a course on Shakespeare that he took in prison. He insisted that Shakespeare had no more talent than anyone, but just had good contacts to promote him. Contacts and image projection were the only keys to success. There was no such thing as talent or right and wrong, just the guts to promote oneself.
I learned from him that he'd been in foster care as a toddler due to abuse and neglect, bounced from one home to another, was rejected by one set of foster parents that he'd hoped would adopt him, and was booted from the system to fend for himself when when he aged out. Different income and social level from the Trumps, but same conclusions about values relationships after a life full of abuse and neglect.
After a few months, the 18 year old girlfriend sneaked back to the school to ask for help from the counselor. The counselor contacted police and Social Services. They put her up in a hotel with a police guard. She naively called "John" to explain why she was gone because she'd left with no word. He tracked down which hotel she was at and broke into the room, claiming that he was rescuing her from a "dirty" cop who was abusing her. He filed that as a formal complaint in his defense against the cop, so the police department was legally obligated to investigate. "John" lost and went back to prison for the rest of his term, plus additional charges.
It was a total eye-opener to me of how a criminal mind works and how it can develop from abuse. Not always. Many abused children take a different path, especially if there is some positive person or incident that influences them.
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