Criminal psychology: characteristics and objectives of this applied science.

Let us look at the characteristics of this branch of psychology applied to criminal behavior.

Criminal psychology 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 its theories and fields of application are many and varied. Next we will discover more in depth what this complex social science is dedicated to.

What is criminal psychology?

Criminal psychology is a branch of psychology that is oriented to study, understand and is oriented to study, understand and explain what is the origin of crime and delinquency.. He also studies the motivations and personality of the offender, in addition to taking advantage of the findings to prevent and control crime and rehabilitate the offender. Based on all this, the figure of the criminal psychologist stands out in prisons, mental health centers and courts, conducting interviews with those involved in the crime and designing crime prevention programs.

Criminal psychology is an applied social discipline that, relatively recently, has managed to become independent from other branches close to the criminal psychology field.. Among these branches with which it is related are legal psychology, forensic psychology, prison 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, has been widely used in criminal psychology as a means of assessing the criminal characteristics of the suspect. as a means of assessing the criminal characteristics of a criminal suspect.

One of the most important developments in criminal psychology are the memory studies of Hermann Ebbinghaus. These have been of great importance in assessing eyewitnesses, how they remember the criminal event and how to verify their veracity. Also related to psychology, specifically social psychology, is 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 several historical and social events. also owes its maturity to several historical and social events.. Among them is the feminist wave of the sixties and seventies, in addition to a greater sensitivity to child sexual abuse, a crime that was thought not to have such a high occurrence.

It was in this context that criminal psychology tried to understand and confront crime, especially sexual and sex crimes, with the intention of preventing them. With all this, the aim was to develop and implement treatments for abusers, and to study the ability of children to give evidence in court in the face of traumatic experiences.

Nor can it be ignored that part of the current criminal psychology has its roots in pseudosciences. Among them we have physiognomy, a discipline that considered that the body and the soul are in intimate relationship, making that the deformities of the body were due to spiritual defects. Along with it we have the phrenology of Franz Joseph Gall, who elaborated a theory in which each soul function corresponds to a cerebral part, 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 origin in psychiatry.. This discipline, at the time, distinguished between mentally ill individuals from those who were criminals. Although it was suggested that criminality had a psychopathological origin, as in 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 was caused by criminal traits present in the personality of the individual.

Theories related to criminal behavior

As we have commented, 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 why someone commits a criminal act.

Developmental psychology emphasizes how developmental trajectories influence criminal behavior.. The focus is on environmental influences, such as coming from a low socioeconomic background, lack of cultural stimulation, neglectful parenting and low self-esteem. All this can lead to criminal behavior, especially in adolescence.

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 theory of social attributionwhich indicates that people tend to attribute a cause, internal or external, as the occurrence of the behavior. Also, by 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 the studies of social deindividualization, a process in which people lose their individual identity within a group, which can contribute to their disconnection from society. This disconnection is a very important aspect in the study of criminality, since it can be a factor that makes the person more prone to commit crimes.

With respect to the psychology of personality, we have the study of individual psychological characteristics.. Personality psychology focused on the criminal process tries to explain and find which are the specific characteristics of the personality that make some individuals more prone to commit criminal acts, with a very close relationship to self-control.

Within clinical psychology we can highlight the study of psychopathology related to delinquency.. It is possible to relate crime to certain mental disorders, such as schizophrenia, bipolar disorder and mood disorders. Also related to the criminal process may be suffering from some type of intellectual disability or impulse control disorder, kleptomania, pyromania or autism spectrum disorders.

Areas of application

Criminal psychology has many areas of application, with the figure of the criminal psychologist in prisons, health centers and courts being particularly noteworthy.

Criminal analysis

Among the functions performed within criminal psychology, criminal analysis cannot be ignored. This is one of the main reasons why psychology should be included in the criminological field.This is one of the main reasons why psychology should be included in the field of criminology, since a crime can involve many people, both the perpetrator and the victim and accomplices.

Thus, criminal psychology analyzes the behaviors of the offender in different specific situations, comparing the data obtained with databases. In the event that coincidences are found, such as the weapons used, the type of victim (as in cases of serial killers), the modus operandi, the geographic location and other aspects that provide a basis for guiding the investigation.

This can also include police investigation, including negotiation with the criminals.This includes negotiation with criminals, work on the psychological content of different evidence or facts, studies on the structure of criminal gangs involved in the crime or crime mapping.

2. Criminal profiling

Another application of criminal psychology is criminal profiling.. This is an investigative technique that helps investigators to put themselves in the mind of the criminal, allowing them to identify his personality and behavioral characteristics, analyzing the crime and the crime scene.

In this way, different aspects of the perpetrator's personality or motives can be learned. For example, the crime may have been planned in advance, or it may have been impulsive and passionate. The age of the offender, his or her gender and the area in which he or she is likely to live are also taken into account.

3. Interviews with those involved in the crime

Criminal psychology can be applied in conducting interviews, both with offenders and victims, to obtain relevant and truthful information.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, capabilities 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 three problems can be identified in standard interviews that involve inhibition in the retrieval of information:

• Frequent interruptions.
• Excessive questioning.
• Inappropriate sequence of questions.

All this can result in more vague and imprecise information, not very useful for the research.

This is why in this type of interview, the cognitive interview is usually used by means of 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 he/she remembers. The third is the "change of perspective". The last one is the "memory in reverse order" where the events are narrated in a different way from how they happened.

4. Assessment for judgment

One of the competencies of the criminal psychologist is to evaluate whether the accused is fit 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 faculties 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 convictions and whether he has the capacity to testify in his own defense.

The reasons that make a person unable to stand trial are various, such as brain injury, dementia, intellectual disability or the 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 state of the victim.. In other words, the aim is to find out what the effects of the act experienced, which may be especially traumatic in the case of an attempted murder, sexual abuse or mistreatment, have on the mental health of the patient.

6. Prevention

Finally, criminal psychology has a preventive purpose, since knowing about crime also helps to prevent 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 be able to reduce criminality through prevention programs. It is intended to improve the knowledge of crime and its prevention.

Bibliographical references:

• Arce, R. and Fariña, F. (2006). Psychology of testimony and cognitive evaluation of the veracity of testimonies and statements. In J. C. Sierra, E. M. Jiménez and G. Buela-Casal (Coords.), Psicología forense: Manual de técnicas y aplicaciones (pp. 563-601). Madrid: Biblioteca Nueva.
• Durrant, R. (2013). An Introduction to Criminal Psychology. New York: Routledge.
• Farrington, D. (2004). Criminological psychology in the twenty-first century. Criminal Behaviour and Mental Health, 14, 152-166.
• Hollin, C. R. (2013). Psychology and Crime. An introduction to criminological psychology. New York: Routledge.
• Otín del Castillo, J. M. (2009). Psicología Criminal: Técnicas aplicadas de Intervención e Investigación Policial. Valladolid: Lex Nova.
• Albiñana-Durà, J.(2015). Criminal psychology. CRIMINA. Center for the study and prevention of crime. Miguel Hernández University.