Criminal Psychology PDF

CRIMINAL PSYCHOLOGY Psychological and Psychiatric explaination of criminality  Psychologist and psychiatrist, same with biologist and chemist, also attempted to explain behavior. They tried to find out whether criminal behavior is caused by such personality fact...

CRIMINAL PSYCHOLOGY Psychological and Psychiatric explaination of criminality  Psychologist and psychiatrist, same with biologist and chemist, also attempted to explain behavior. They tried to find out whether criminal behavior is caused by such personality factors as emotional problems, mental disorders, sociopathy, and thinking patterns.  Psychoanalytic Theory  This theory blames criminal or delinquent behavior to a conscience that is either so overbearing that it arouses feelings of guilt, or so weak that it cannot control the individuals impilses and leads to a need for immediate gratification. Ø Sigmund Freud The founder of psychoanalysis, viewed criminality as a result of too much guilt feelings. He noticed that those suffering from unbearable guilt committed crimes in order to be apprehended and punished. Once they had been p u n i s h e d , t h e i r feelings of guilt were relieved.  Freud attributed these feelings man personality structure: the Id, ego and the super-ego, as follows; The id – It is the impulsive part of the personality and unconscious. The id impulses require instant gratification without concern for the of others. The ego – This is the objective, rational part of personality, the reality component. Hence, it considers sensibility and responsibility to others. The super-ego – The super-ego is the “conscience” of a person. It is the moral aspect of personality. It allows a person to feel pride, shame and guilt.  Personality and Crimes  Some psychological studies have examined the relation between personality and criminality. In the investigation of the differences of personality between criminal and non- criminals carried out in prisons , it showed that inmates are typically more impulsive, hostile, self-centered, and immature than non-criminals.  Mental Disturbances and Crimes criminal behavior is also linked to some mental disturbances. These disturbances or disorders come in many form as follows; 1. Mental Deficiency – This is a condition of arrested or incomplete development of the mind existing before the age of eighteen, whether arising from inherent causes or induced by disease or injury.  Classes of Mental deficiency: a. Idiots – persons with a mental defect to degree that they are unable to guard themselves against common physical dangers. b. Imbeciles – persons with a mental defect, which though not amounting to idiocy, is yet so pronounced that they are incapable of managing themselves or their affairs. c. Feeble-minded – persons with a mental defect, which though not amounting to imbecility, is yet so pronounced that they require care, supervision and control for their own or for protection of others, or in the case of children, they appear to be permanently incapable of receiving proper benefit from instruction in ordinary schools. d. Morally defective – persons with strong vicious or criminal propensities. They require care and supervision and control for their own or for the protection of others. 2. Psychosis – This is a common category of mental disorder among youthful offenders and habitual criminals. Psychosis can be functional or organic. It is characterized by infantile level of response, lack of affection to others, and aggression to environment and other people. Psychotic people lose contact with reality and have difficulty distinguishing reality from fantasy.  The most common types of psychoses are the following: a. Schizophrenia – This is manifested by delusions or hallucinations or a clear-cut thought disorder. This is also known as dementia praecox. Sometimes schizophrenics are not logical in their thoughts, as shown by their language. Their personal appearance is dilapidated, and they are liable to impulsive acts and may commit suicide.  b. Paranoia – Its is a psychotic delusion characterized by incorrect or unreasonable ideas which can be seen as truth by people suffering from this disorder. Paranoia is a Greek term which means ‘a mind beside itself.” Paranoid people are suspicious and have that feeling of being persecuted by other, referred to as psychotic delusion. In the paranoids mind the delusion system is firm and is accompanied by clear and orderly thinking because he or she can be give rational, distinct and clear reasons for his or her thoughts. 3. Neurosis – this is another common type of mental disorder linked to criminal behavior. Neurotic behavior are those that do not grossly violate social norms or represent severely disorganized per personalities. Most neurotics are aware of their problems and may not seek professional help. They do not require hospitalization but are guilty, unhappy, anxious people.  The most common neuroses with their respective symptoms are the following: a. Neurusthenia – This is a condition of weakened nerves that manifest in fatigue and nervousness and sometimes in physical symptoms such as pain. b. Anxiety – It is also known as “anxiety state’ or “anxiety reaction,” with the person feeling anxious, fearful or apprehensive. The person may also be irritable and restless and has chronic tension, poor concertration and overreaction to noise. c. Obsessive-compulsive neurosis – this is the uncontrollable or irresistible impulse to do something. There may be an active desire to resist this irrational behavior, but the person is prevented by his unconscious motives to act out his difficulty or to suffer miserably in his fear. 1) Kleptomania - the compulsive desire to steal 2) Dipsomania – the compulsive desire to drink alcohol 3) Pyromania – the compulsive desire to set fire  4) Homicidal compulsion – the irresistible urge to kill somebody d. Hysteria – This refers to an unhealthy or senseless emotional outburst coupled with violent emotional outbreaks. c. Phobia – It is generally called exaggerated fears of things that normal people fear to some degree, and fears of things that ordinary people do not fear.  Some Common Phobias Name of Phobia Object of Fear Agoraphobia Open, crowded places Sociophobia People or social situations Acrophobia Heights Claustrophobia Enclosed spaces Necrophobia Death and/ or the dead Homophobia Blood Autophobia Being alone Scotophobia/achluophobia Darkness Phyrophobia Fire Xenophobia Strangers, foreigners or aliens f. Depression – People who suffer from depressive neurosis generally have feelings of pain, hurt, unpleasantness, sadness, rejection, self-pity, helplessness, despair, boredom, pessimism, and rejection. When these feelings become pervasive and affect all aspect of a person life, depression is said to occur. 4. Epilepsy – This is a condition characterized by compulsive seizures and a tendency to mental deterioration. The disease is characterized by reduced emotional control, stubbornness and irresistibility, impulsiveness, inconsistency in feeling, irritability manifested either by sudden outburst of anger and vicious conduct. Intelligence and Crimes The classic studies of the Juke and Kallikak families were among the first to show that feeblemindedness or low intelligence was inherited and transferred from one generation to the next.  Authorities such as Bartol, Wilson, and Herrstein indicate evidence that intelligence is inherited, as shown by the numerous studies conducted. They were one in concluding that an estimate of 10-poit gap exists on IQ scores between offenders and non-offenders, non-offenders scoring higher. Moreover, most offenders fall in the low-normal or borderline range (60-100 points).  Criminologist Travis Hirsehi and Micheal hindelang also proposed the idea that low IQ increases the likelihood of criminals behavior through its effect on school performance, that is, youths with low do poorly in school, and school failure and academic incompetence are highly related to delinquency and later to adult criminality. Studies showed that forgery, bribery, security violation, and embezzlements are crimes committed by the offenders TRAVIS HIRSEHI with higher IQs than those of offenders in the general population; assault, homicide, rape, and sex offenses are committed by the offenders with lower IQ than those offender in the general population; and the high-frequency property offenders, such as burglars, thieves, robbers, drugs and alcohol offenders, have IQs thst correspond to general population. MICHEAL HINDELANG Charles Goring (1870-1919) studies the mental characteristic of 3,000 English convicts. He found little difference in the physical characteristics of criminals and non-criminals, but he uncovered significant relationship between crime and a condition he referred to as defective intelligence, which involves such traits as feeblemindedness, epilepsy, insanity and defective social instinct. CHARLES GORING Cognitive theory this psychological theory of behavior is based on the belief that people organize their thoughts into rules and law, and that the way in which those thoughts are organized results in either criminal or noncriminal behavior. This organization of thoughts is called MORAL REASONING, and when applied to law, LEGAL REASONING. The most important for crime studies is the MORAL DEVELOPMENT THEORY pioneered by LAWRENCE KOHLBERG. Kohlberg contended that moral reasoning develop in three stages. He called the first stage, pre-conventional; the second stage, conventional; and the third, post-conventional. LAWRENCE KOHLBERG BEHAVIOR THEORY the most popular work on behavioral approaches is that B.F. Skinner. Behavioral theory is based on the belief that all behavior is learned and can be unlearned. Its major premise is that people alter their behavior according to the reaction it receives from others. Behavior is supported by rewards and extinguished by negative reaction or punishments.  It is assumed that neurotic symptoms and some deviant behavior are acquired through an unfortunate quirk of learning and that they are rewarding to the person. The undesirable behavior can be eliminated, modified, or replaced by taking away the reward value or by rewarding a more appropriate behavior that is incompatible with the deviant one. The Sexual Deviations Sexual deviation is the impairment of either the desire for sexual gratification or in the ability to achieve it (Coleman, 1980). the sexual disorders are common causation of sex crimes. Solis(1987) Presented the criminological characteristics of sex crime as : An ancient and universal crime. There is close contact between offender and victim. It is committed by sex against the opposite sex. Sex act as crime depends on the existing moral value of society.  Many sex crimes are committed and not reported. It is committed in strict privacy. It is a common crime among the lower class of society. Unlike other crimes, sex crimes can be pardoned by marriage. There is seasonal variation in the frequency or commission. Severity of punishment does not deter its commission. Its consequence (pregnancy) become a legal problem. The usual victims are children. Psychic trauma suffered by the victim varies with the moral standard of the victim.