Criminal Psychology: Characteristics And Objectives Of This Applied Science
criminal psychology It is a branch of psychology that focuses on studying the criminal process, explaining it, understanding how and why it happened and, thus, trying to prevent it.
The history of this discipline is very long and the theories and areas of application of it are multiple and varied. Below we will discover in more depth what this complex social science is dedicated to.
Criminal psychology is a branch of psychology that It is aimed at studying, understanding and explaining the origin of crime and crime It also studies the motivations and personality of the offender, in addition to taking advantage of what is learned to prevent and control crime and rehabilitate the offender. Based on all this, the figure of the criminal psychologist stands out in penitentiary, mental health centers and courts, conducting interviews with those involved in crime and designing crime preventive programs.
Criminal psychology is an applied social discipline that, relatively recently, has managed to become independent from other nearby branches Among these branches with which it is related we have legal psychology, forensic psychology, penitentiary psychology and police psychology.
Historical origins
The historical origins of criminal psychology are various, related to other disciplines, especially criminology, sociology and psychology. In fact, and in relation to the latter, criminal psychology could not have developed to what it is today without psychology having developed as a science in general. One of the great milestones of psychology, the creation of tests, they have been widely used in criminal psychology as an evaluation of the criminal characteristics of the suspect of a crime.
One of the most important developments for criminal psychology are Hermann Ebbinghaus’s studies on memory. These have been of great importance when evaluating eyewitnesses, the way they remember the criminal event and how to verify its veracity. It is also related to psychology, specifically social psychology, the study of group dynamics, increasing interest in the study of decision-making by individuals involved in a criminal act.
But in addition to the development of psychology itself, criminal psychology also owes its maturity to various historical and social events Among them is the feminist wave of the sixties and seventies, as well as a greater sensitivity towards child sexual abuse, a crime that was believed not to occur so high.
It was in that context that criminal psychology tried to understand and confront crime, especially sexual and sexist crimes, with the intention of preventing it. With all this, the aim was to develop and implement treatments for abusers, and to study the children’s ability to give evidence in court regarding the traumatic experience they had experienced.
Nor can it be ignored that part of current criminal psychology has part of its roots in pseudoscience. Among them we have physiognomy, a discipline that considered that the body and soul are in an intimate relationship, causing body deformities to be due to spiritual defects. Along with it we have the phrenology of Franz Joseph Gall, who developed a theory in which each mental function corresponds to a part of the brain, and these can be observed in the skull, in the form of depressions and mounds along the head.
Another of the great contributions that criminal psychology has received has its origins in psychiatry This discipline, at the time, distinguished between mentally ill individuals and those who were criminals. Although it was proposed that criminality had a psychopathological origin, as is the case of moral insanity proposed by James Cowles Prichard, this concept was eventually replaced by that of criminal personality during the 19th century. Thus, it was recognized that criminal behavior occurred due to criminal traits present in the individual’s personality.
Theories related to criminal behavior
As we have mentioned, criminal psychology is understood as the application of psychological knowledge in the understanding and explanation of criminal behavior. Although this definition is clear and unequivocal, there are many theories that try to explain the fact that someone commits a criminal act.
From evolutionary psychology, emphasis is placed on how developmental trajectories influence criminal behavior The focus is on environmental influences, such as coming from a low socioeconomic background, not having received cultural stimulation, being the subject of a neglectful parenting style and low self-esteem. All of this can cause, especially in adolescence, the individual to behave criminally.
On the other hand, going to social psychology, there are several theories that try to explain how criminal behavior occurs. Among them we have Festinger’s social attribution theory, which indicates that people tend to attribute a cause, internal or external, as the appearance of the behavior. Also, from the same author, we have the theory of cognitive dissonance, explained as the tendency of people to make a decision between two options that are valued similarly and lead to psychological tension.
Within social psychology we also have studies of social deindividualization, a process in which people lose their individual identity within a group, which can contribute to them disconnecting from society. This disconnection is a very important aspect in the study of crime, since it can be a factor that makes a person more prone to commit crimes.
With respect to personality psychology, we have the study of individual psychological characteristics Personality psychology focused on the criminal process tries to explain and find the specific personality characteristics that make some individuals more likely to commit criminal acts, with a very close relationship to self-control.
Within clinical psychology we can highlight the study of psychopathology related to crime It is possible to link crime to certain mental disorders, such as schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and mood disorders. Suffering from some type of intellectual disability or impulse control disorder, kleptomania, pyromania or autism spectrum disorders can also be related to the criminal process.
Areas of application
Criminal psychology has many areas of application, with the figure of the criminal psychologist being especially notable in penitentiary centers, health centers and courts.
1. Criminal analysis
Among the functions carried out within criminal psychology, criminal analysis cannot be ignored. This is one of the main reasons why psychology should be included in the criminological field given that many people can intervene in a crime, both the person who commits it and the victim and accomplices.
Thus, criminal psychology analyzes the behavior of the offender in different specific situations, so that it compares the data obtained with the databases. In case coincidences are found, such as the weapons used, the type of victim (as in cases of serial killers), the modus operandi, the geographical location and other aspects that allow us to have a basis to guide the investigation.
This may also include a police investigation including negotiation with criminals, work on the psychological content of different evidence or facts, studies on the structure of criminal gangs involved in crime or crime mapping.
2. Criminal profiling
Another application of criminal psychology is criminal profiling This is an investigation technique that helps investigators place themselves in the mind of the criminal, allowing them to identify their personality and behavioral characteristics, analyzing the crime and its scene.
In this way, different aspects about the author’s personality or motives can be known. For example, it may be that the crime had prior planning, or it may be impulsive and passionate. The age of the person who committed the crime, their gender and the area in which they possibly live are also taken into account.
3. Interviews with those involved in the crime
Criminal psychology can be applied in Conducting interviews with both offenders and victims to obtain relevant and truthful information about the events that have occurred.
This takes into account the different needs of each person subjected to the criminal act. They have needs, abilities and characteristics that must be taken into account when conducting the interview, such as a minor who has witnessed a crime, an offender who refuses to confess, someone traumatized…
The interview in this area has its particularities, given that In standard interviews, three problems can be identified that involve inhibition in information retrieval:
All this can result in more vague and imprecise information, not very useful for the investigation.
That is why In this type of interviews, the cognitive interview is usually used through different techniques The first would be to mentally reconstruct the contexts of the crime, the second would be to leave the “free memory” to the person, narrating everything they remember. The third is the “change of perspective.” The last is the “reverse order memory” in which the events are narrated differently from how they happened.
4. Assessment to be judged
One of the competencies of the criminal psychologist is to assess whether the accused is competent to stand trial
It must be assessed whether the individual is capable of understanding the commission of the crime of which he is accused, and whether he had full powers to understand it at the time he did it, whether he can understand the causes of which he is accused, whether he understands the range of possible sentences and whether he has the capacity to testify in his own defense.
There are several reasons why a person cannot be tried, such as: a brain injury, dementia, intellectual disability or presence of psychopathology
In order to verify this, psychologists use evaluation methods or psychometric tests.
5. Assessment of the victim’s condition
The aim is not only to know the characteristics of the offender, but also to know the status of the victim That is, the aim is to find out what effects the act you have experienced has on your mental health, which can be especially traumatic in the case of an attempted murder, sexual abuse or mistreatment.
6. Prevention
Finally, we have that criminal psychology has a preventive purpose, since knowing the crime also contributes to avoiding it by intervening on the groups most likely to commit it.
Thus, this discipline, knowing the biopsychosocial factors that have a relationship with the appearance and development of crime in order to reduce crime through prevention programs. The aim is to improve knowledge of crime and its prevention.
