kuaoi
Level 13
Criminal Psychology
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“Why do criminals commit crimes?”
Hi Karakura! So, I’ve collected information progressively about criminal psychology. If you don’t know what that is, that’s perfectly okay! Everything will be explained here.
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What is criminal psychology?
Criminal psychology is related to the field of criminal anthropology. The study goes deeply into what makes someone commit a crime, but also the reactions after the crime. If the criminal is on the run or in court. Criminal psychologists have many roles within the court systems, these include being called up as witnesses in court cases to help the jury understand the mind of the criminal. Some types of psychiatry also deal with aspects of criminal behavior. Criminal behavior can be stated as “Any kind of antisocial behavior, which is punishable usually by law but can be punished by norms, stated by community,”. Therefore, it is difficult to define criminal behavior as there is a fine line between what could be considered okay and what's considered not to be, being considered as violation at one point of time may now be accepted by the community. This article will look at the different roles of a criminal psychologist, key aspects of criminals, and major studies that contributed to criminal psychology.
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What role does psychology play in the legal system?
Psychologists are licensed professionals that can assess both mental and physical states. Profilers look for patterns in behavior to typify the individual(s) behind a crime. A group effort attempts to answer the most common psychological questions: If there is a risk of a social predator re-offending if put back in society; if an offender is competent to stand trial; whether or not an offender was sane or insane at the time of the offense.
Criminal psychologists can be used to do investigative work, like examine photographs of a crime, or conduct an interview with a suspect. They sometimes have to formulate a hypothesis, in order to assess what an offender is going to do next, after they have broken the law.
The question of competency to stand trial is a question of an offender's current state of mind. This assesses the offender's ability to understand the charges against them, the possible outcomes of being convicted/acquitted of these charges and their ability to assist their attorney with their defense. The question of sanity/insanity or criminal responsibility is an assessment of the offender's state of mind at the time of the crime. This refers to their ability to understand right from wrong and what is against the law. The insanity defense is rarely used, as it is very difficult to prove. If declared insane, an offender is committed to a secure hospital facility for much longer than they would have served in prison—theoretically, that is.
Legal psychologists, or known as Criminal psychologists are the ones who make the decisions on offenders. They see if those offenders are a threat to society.
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The four roles of criminal psychologists!
Clinical: In this situation, the psychologist is involved in assessment of an individual in order to provide a clinical judgment. The psychologist can use assessment tools, interview or psychometric tools in order to aid in their assessment. These assessments can help police or other comparable organizations to determine how to process the individual in question. For example, help finding out whether they are capable to stand trial or whether the individual has mental illness which relates to whether they are able or unable to understand the proceedings.
Experimental: In this case, the task of the psychologist is to perform research in order to inform a case. This can involve executing experimental tests for the purposes of illustrating a point or providing further information to courts. This may involve false memory, eyewitness credibility experiments and such. For example, this way questions similar to “how likely would a witness see an object in 100 meters?” could be answered.
Actuarial: This role involves usage of statistics in order to inform a case. For example, a psychologist may be asked to provide probability of an event occurring. For example, the courts may ask how likely it is that a person will reoffend if a sentence is declined.
Advisory: Here, a psychologist may advise police about how to proceed with the investigation. For example, which is the best way to interview the individual, how best to cross-examine a vulnerable or another expert witness, how an offender will act after committing the offense.
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What is profiling?
Criminal profiling, also known as offender profiling, is the process of linking an offender's actions at the crime scene to their most likely characteristics to help police investigators narrow down and prioritize a pool of most likely suspects. Profiling is a relatively new area of forensic psychology that during the past 20 years has developed from what used to be described as an art to a rigorous science. Part of a sub-field of forensic psychology called investigative psychology, criminal profiling is based on increasingly rigorous methodological advances and empirical research.
Criminal profiling is a process now known in the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) as criminal investigative inquiry. Profilers, or criminal investigative inquirists, are trained and experienced law enforcement officers who study every behavioral aspect and detail of an unsolved violent crime scene in which a certain amount of psychopathology has been left at the scene. The characteristics of a good profiler are discussed. Five behavioral characteristics that can be gleaned from the crime scene are described:
1. amount of planning that went into the crime,
2. degree of control used by the offender,
3. escalation of emotion at the scene,
4. risk level of both the offender and victim,
5. and appearance of the crime scene (disorganized versus organized).
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I'll be wrapping this report up here. Thank you so much for reading and I hope you enjoyed learning about this subject. I personally found it very interesting and enjoyed doing research on it. Anyways, take care everyone!
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