The author reviews the study by Samenow and Yochelson of 252 hard-core criminals that included interviews with prison and probation officials, families, girl friends, employers, and associates. The paper disagrees with Ramsey Clark and others who say that society's ills are the cause of much of the crime and that if those ills were eliminated, then crime would be reduced. Rather, the paper looks at professional criminals such as John Dillinger who have made a deliberate choice to become criminals. The paper agrees with Yochelson and Samenow's theory which places responsibility for criminality on the criminals themselves, and notes that self-help efforts which stress personal responsibility have had some success with prison inmates, although with only a small percentage. Finally, the paper sees prisons as serving the purpose of custody and deterrence, but suggests that self-help programs could be very useful in those prisons.