Criminal propensity
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Crime & Punishment
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Criminal propensity
/ˈkrɪmɪnᵊl prəˈpɛnsəti/ (n.)
Of a person, a characteristic that makes her unusually prone to criminal behaviour.
This might include a documented history of antisocial behaviour, narcotic dependency, diagnosed psychiatric illness, a criminal record, abnormally low educational achievement or a history physical or mental abuse or psychological trauma.
The sorts of things that might explain why this person did an abhorrent thing that that person, without criminal propensities, would not.
Warning: JC made up this term — or at least this definition for it — largely so he could avoid going “in the absence of psychiatric illness or historic physical or mental abuse, and with no documented history of violence, crime or antisocial behaviour”