Meaning, purpose and scope of criminal psychology

In today’s world, crime became an essential element of the society without which we
can’t even imagine of a crimefree society. So, it is a challenge for the government to
make its people feel safe and secure by preventing crime and criminals in a society. Is
it possible for them by just framing new criminal laws or by just punishing all the
criminals with more rigorous punishments?

The answer would be NO because if you have to get rid of something, then u must
have to understand every aspect of that particular thing. So, to prevent crime and
criminals from the society, we have to understand the cause of it –
Why crime happens?
How does a criminal mind work? and
What is the cause behind the crime?

Answer to all these questions will be answered in either Criminology or in Criminal

Psychology.
So, to prevent crime and criminals from the society, one should understand
criminology and criminal psychology.
According to psychology, criminals can be characterised under two categories.
Psychopaths and Sociopaths.
Psychopaths are the ones, who are born with high criminal tendencies.
Sociopaths are the ones, who are not born with high criminal tendencies but due to
external factors like – emotional imbalance, economic issues, family issues due to
they choose a path which ultimately leads them to the path of crime.
Nobody wants to become a criminal in his/her life. But unknowingly they indulge in
an act which leads them to commit crime and become a criminal.

Hence, Criminal Psychology is the need of an hour to prevent crime and criminals
from the society.
A criminal psychologist is a professional who studies the wills, thoughts, intentions,
and reactions of criminals and potential criminals.
The focus of criminal psychology lies in understanding and predicting criminal
behaviour.
Criminal psychology is the study of the views, thoughts, intentions, actions and
reactions of criminals and suspects. It is a subfield of criminology and applied
psychology.
Criminal psychology is the examination of a criminal's thoughts and actions in order
to assess and identify patterns that may help the police or other law enforcement
agencies catch criminals or support a court's proceedings.
What is crime-
According to Law, crime is an act committed or omitted in violation of public laws. It
is also considered as an act forbidden by law.
It mainly constitutes 2 components- Actus Reus and Mens Rea.
1. Mens rea-
Mens rea refers to the crime’s mental elements of the defendant’s intent.
It is a necessary element, the criminal act must be voluntary or purposeful.
Mens rea is the mental intention (mental fault), or the defendant’s state of mind at the
time of the offense, sometimes called the guilty mind.
It originates from the ancient maxim, “actus reus non facit reum nisi mens sit rea”
which means “the act is not guilty unless the mind is guilty.” Mens
rea allows the criminal justice system to differentiate between someone who did not
mean to commit a crime and someone who intentionally set out to commit a crime.
2. Actus Reus-
Actus Reus is the physical aspect of a crime.
The accused needs to have done something or omitted to do something, resulting in
injury to the plaintiff, or the victim in civil cases.
Without a guilty act, there can be no crime and no suit for damages can arise.
An act alone does not make a crime, however, both the intention of the person and the
act itself if such act is prohibited, combine to form the crime.
Actus Reus can also be the omission of an act, omits to do something that the accused
knows he is bound by duty or law to do.
An offender when he commits a crime have the knowledge of what he is doing or
what he will do to the victim.
The main focus of psychological aspect is on the reason behind is act, what was the
reason of his act that he commits a crime,
There are so many factors that either he is a habitual offender or he is doing for his/her
family or he is doing for some sort of bet (which mostly youth has the ego to not to let
himself down and for that ego they can do anything to any extent or just for showing
off ) or he is taking revenge or he/she stoles the particular thing that is giving them
instant gratification or pleasure there are so many factors for which the offender
committed a crime.
Thus to understand the psychology of a criminal, criminal psychology plays an import
role

What is criminal psychology?

There are so many different aspects taken to understand the nature , cause and
distribution of crime. One of these aspect is Criminal Psychology .

Criminal psychology is considered as one of the important branches of criminology.

So many criminologists and psychologists have tried to define it but till date there is
no specific or universally accepted definition of criminal psychology.
According to Legal Dictionary ," Criminal Psychology is considered as the study of
will, intention , thoughts , feelings and reactions of criminals and those who
engage in criminal behaviour".
Criminal psychology is the study of thoughts, intentions, actions, or reactions, of a
criminal to analyse and derive a pattern that would help police or other related
agencies to apprehend criminals or help a court during proceedings.
A major portion of criminal psychology deals with criminal profiling. The
person who practices in the field of criminal psychology is called a criminal
psychologist. Criminal
profiling is a process of linking the actions of an offender to the crime scene to
explore characteristics of offenders so that it becomes easy for police or other related
agencies to find out similar kinds of offenders by just examining the crime scene.

Criminal psychology is now a properly-recognized field of applied psychology. There

is also improvement in the quality of undergraduate and postgraduate training
opportunities. Criminal psychology is
like an ocean that is largely unexplored with the skills to conduct research in the field
of criminal psychology.

Role of criminal psychology

1.Criminal profiling: The psychologist examines various crime scenes and criminals
to understand the motive, intention, action, reaction, thought process to enlist
characteristics shown by the offender of a particular crime. This would help law
enforcement agencies to draw a profile of a criminal to make apprehension of such
criminals easy and fast.

2. Assess individual: The psychologist is required to assess the cognitive state of not
only a victim but an accused also. The psychologist assesses whether a victim or an
accused is mentally unfit as they claim or a victim or an accused is mentally unfit
about which no one is aware. The assessment also helps to discover what kind of
social, biological and environmental factors lead to particular type of criminal
behaviour.

3. Advisory: History evidently shows that the advice of a criminal psychologist is of

great significance in an investigation. The psychologist examines the crime scene and
the evidence retrieved from the crime scene, thereafter trying to find the motive and
intention of the offender which helps the investigator to apprehend the criminal
swiftly. The psychologist also gives advice to the court.
Scope of Criminal Psychology:
We can figure out the scope of criminal psychology through four basic roles. These
roles are as follows:

1. Clinical role: In this role, experts uses assessment of a person who had committed a
crime or who has been declared as an accused by the courts. These assessments can be
used to determine if a person is competent to stand in a trial.

2. Experimental role : In this role, experts conducts researches in order to help judges
and jury to decide a case by questioning the eyes witness and giving their observations
to them.

3. Actuarial role : In this role , expert uses statistics such as probability of an event
and they also uses to ask livelihood of an individual reoffending .

4. Advisory role : In this role criminal psychologist advices police in regards to an

investigation . It also helps the judges to understand the criminal behaviour or
psychology of the accused and helps them in establishing accurate justice.

Conclusion:

Criminal psychology has emerged as an essential discipline that would help law
enforcement agencies and courts to enhance their performance as well as to counter
crimes and criminals efficiently.