The "Short Con" Man

Abstract

This article describes and analyzes ten Negro short-con men who were part of a larger sample of 400 offenders interviewed and tested at the District of Columbia Reformatory (actually a penitentiary), at Lorton, Va. It was hypothesized that offenders with a confidence-game criminal pattern would constitute a cer tain social and psychological type different from that of offenders with other criminal patterns. Comparisons demonstrated this to be the case. The con men under study were all characterized by the facts that they were isolated, marginal, hedonistic, mobile, exploitative, nonviolent, undisciplined, unsuccessful, recidivistic, institutionalized, sociopathic offenders. All had domineering mothers who taught them, at an early age, the necessity for, and the practice and reward of, deceit. This early training in deceit and nonviolence shaped the type of criminal pattern they chose in later years. They rarely committed offenses that were not related to confidence games. Although they learned their "trade" from the big con, they lacked the finesse, skill, and in dustry necessary to become successful in their criminal career. They rationalized away their brand of crime as really not crimi nal and condemned many other types of crime. They derived pleasure, as well as financial reward, from "putting the mark down."