Jack Katz, in Seductions of Crime, explores the evil of crime as if it were a realm, with its almost sacred aspects, starkly opposed to religion, but at the same time with startling similarities. Katz sees much criminality not as a result of economic need, which most sociologists would argue, but as something more existential, more associated with the transcendent aspect of power, as if criminals were trying to be god-like in their behavior. The author is aware of the sometimes shocking nature of his study, but he will not be deterred. He claims to seek to understand the criminal mind and personality as objectively as possible, but the reader cannot avoid feeling that Katz's objectivity verges almost on admiration at times, or at least appreciation for the criminal mind, personality and behavior.
Katz sees a sort of sacredness in criminal behavior that at times crosses into the sensual, a reference which illuminates the "seductions" of the title of the book:
Morally as well as sensually, it is likely that some readers will feel personally victimized by my effort to convey the offender's experience. But if guided by empathy, this text does not compel sympathy . . . A trip to "the other side" [i.e., the side of evil] does not have to be a permanent change in spiritual address (vii).
Katz's book, then, is intended to correct "the neglect of the positive, often wonderful attractions within the lived experience of criminality" (3). He sees his work as unique in "its focus on the seductive qualities of crimes: those aspects in the foreground of criminality that make its various forms sensible, even sensually compelling, ways of being" (3). Therefore, Katz does more than try to merely understand what makes a criminal mind tick. He attempts to place criminality in a context which leads one to regard criminals as special, at times almost religious characters who pursue the same transcendent experiences a follower of some traditio...