What does this sentence containing 「犯人意識」 mean in Osamu Dazai's 「人間失格」?


> また、犯人意識、という言葉もあります。自分は、この人間の世の中に於いて、一生その意識に苦しめられながらも、...

I understand this as,

> There's something called criminal consciousness. Even if I am suffering from
> this consciousness in this world of humans ...

What exactly does 'criminal consciousness' mean here ? If I simply club the
meaning of 'criminal' and 'consciousness' would it mean the awareness of
criminality or something similar ?

Why does the author say, I suffer because of this consciousness ?

Above sentence in a larger context:

>
> また、犯人意識、という言葉もあります。自分は、この人間の世の中に於いて、一生その意識に苦しめられながらも、しかし、それは自分の糟糠の妻の如き好伴侶で、そいつと二人きりで侘びしく遊びたわむれているというのも、自分の生きている姿勢の一つだったかも知れないし、...




犯人意識 is not really a common word at least in modern Japanese, but in my
[previous answer](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/a/68776/5010), I
translated 犯人意識 as "the sense of guilt". This 意識 is "awareness", "feeling" or
"sense" rather than "consciousness" in the sense of "state of being awake and
alert".

Similar expressions include:

  * 民族意識: [national consciousness](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_consciousness) (although 民族 is not exactly the same as 国家)
  * 帰属意識: sense of belonging; belongingness
  * 罪の意識: sense of guilt (罪の意識 and 罪悪感 are much more common than 犯人意識 in modern Japanese)




犯人意識 is not really a common word at least in modern Japanese, but in my
[previous answer](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/a/68776/5010), I
translated 犯人意識 as "the sense of guilt". This 意識 is "awareness", "feeling" or
"sense" rather than "consciousness" in the sense of "state of being awake and
alert".

Similar expressions include:

  * 民族意識: [national consciousness](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_consciousness) (although 民族 is not exactly the same as 国家)
  * 帰属意識: sense of belonging; belongingness
  * 罪の意識: sense of guilt (罪の意識 and 罪悪感 are much more common than 犯人意識 in modern Japanese)

