Criminal Psychology

Criminal Psychology Definition

Criminal psychology emerged in the 18th century due to the conflict between medical experts and judges when sentencing individuals for criminal behaviour. In this way, criminal psychology includes four main topics: philosophy, medicine, law and biology. Today, criminal psychology is defined in the following way:

In short, criminal psychology is a subfield of psychology that focuses on understanding the mind of criminals. Therefore, criminal psychology uses psychological principles to explain this specific kind of behaviour.

The questions that criminal psychologists aim to answer are the following:

• Why do some people commit crimes and others don't?
• Does a criminal personality exist?
• Are criminals born criminals? Or do they become criminals throughout their lives?
• What are the different types of crimes?
• Can criminals be rehabilitated?

Criminal psychology studies criminal behaviour as well as delinquency types. This is not only done by assessing individuals but also by conducting research with non-criminal individuals. Other functionalities that a criminal psychologist could engage in are the investigations of the psychological factors that lead to crime, the assessment of how dangerous certain individuals are, and the development of psychological and psychotherapeutic interventions for criminals.

In essence, criminal psychology refers to studying crime that doesn't place all the emphasis on the criminals themselves but on societies too.

Criminal Psychology Facts

At this point, you may be wondering which facts criminal psychologists establish. What do criminal psychologists do? Here we review the dissimilar tasks that criminal psychologists convey to come up with their facts and conclusions.

Criminal psychologists can be recruited as law enforcement personnel in the criminal justice system to provide their professional insights and advise other specialists. They can support police officers, for example, by helping create questions to be asked during interrogation.

Furthermore, they can provide unique insights about an investigation, thus supporting the criminal assessment.

Fig. 1. Courtroom as an example of the application of criminal psychology.

One of the primary responsibilities of criminal psychologists is to assess a suspect's or a criminal's mental state using psychological testing.

Many criminal psychologists use research practices to test their theories and models scientifically. These studies could, for example, assess eyewitnesses' testimony's veracity or criminals' memory, among other topics.

Another main task of criminal psychologists is to provide chances for prisoners' rehabilitation.

Some techniques used include therapy, anger management classes, AA meetings and teaching them new skills that can be used later.

Criminal Psychology and Punishment

Punishment is the practice of awarding consequences to individuals' actions so that these are not repeated over time. It is based on operant conditioning, which suggests that people will repeat the rewarded behaviours and will cease those punished.

The role of a criminal psychologist is to assess the mental state the person was in when committing the crime, which will impact the sentence they will receive. Some punishments require that the person presents intention when committing criminal behaviour.

Individuals with mental illnesses, however, may receive different punishments if criminal psychologists can state that the individual did not intend their actions. In some cases, they cannot be judged as responsible for their actions due to their psychological state.

Some of the types of punishments used in western countries are:

• Prison or custodial sentencing, which requires taking freedom away from individuals. Being away from society is meant to act as punishment for the criminal and also to protect society.
• Fines refer to the positive punishment through which victims receive monetary compensation from the criminal; these vary depending on the severity of the crime.
• Community sentencing is the type of punishment by which offenders needs to engage in the form of rehabilitation within a community. This can be done through community work, undergoing a substance use treatment or taking part in other existing social programmes.

Criminal Psychology vs Criminology

Different from criminal psychology, criminology is the academic discipline that uses the scientific method to study crime to control and prevent it.

These are the major perspectives of criminology:

Given that criminology focuses on controlling and preventing crime, it has become a multidisciplinary field in which psychology is only one contributor. Given the multidisciplinary of the academic discipline, other areas such as neuroscience, public health, epidemiology, law and sociology also contribute to criminology.

Criminal Psychology vs Forensic Psychology

Criminal psychology and forensic psychology are terms which are widely interchanged. And although they both emphasise the individual committing the crime, they are essentially two different branches of psychology and lead to different career paths.

Unlike criminal psychology, forensic psychology can determine a crime's effects on the victim. Further, forensic psychology assesses the mental state a person is currently in when they commit a criminal offence.

As you can see in the example above, forensic psychology is the branch that offers assistance and consulting to the process of administration of justice within the scopes of the courts and other civil matters.

Importance of Criminal Psychology

Criminal psychology is central to the successful functioning of societies. The research that criminal psychologists conduct can greatly identify potential offenders and allow authorities to prevent future crimes. Furthermore, since criminal psychology emphasises societies rather than individuals, it becomes necessary to create societal conditions that bring harmony and prevent harm.