Criminal psychology is the area of legal psychology that studies the system of internal mechanisms of offending people, peace of mind of people, as well as the problem of the structure, formation, functioning and the collapse of the criminal groups.
Poznyshev SVHe is the founder of the discipline.According to his theory, criminal psychology performs the following tasks:
- exploring those properties and the state of people who are capable of precipitating criminal behavior;
- not consider a complex of separate internal processes, and the whole person in its forms, which can be attributed to the field of legal psychology;
- identifies ways of dealing with offenders.
The domestic research on criminal psychology study:
- inner world of the prisoners;
- living conditions of the underworld;
- principles of interpretation of the testimony of witnesses (the causes of errors in them);
- technique and theory of forensic psychological examination;
- psychology of deviant behavior (criminal, addictive, suicidal and other types).
Legal psychology offers original methods for the detection of traces of the crime.Over the years the science conducted a large number of experiments.
Criminal psychology has two lines of research.
Firstly, within the discipline we have been allocated personal preconditions and quality, which in interaction with a particular external situation can provoke the situation of the offense.Criminal psychology establishes and justifies the specific and characteristic features of a person, that cause and characteristic premises.It is a defect of justice, culture, morality, emotions and so on.Moreover, within the discipline is studied in detail the emergence of human immunity to the crime situation and makes recommendations on crime prevention.
Second, methods of legal psychology are also directed to the study of the psychology of the victim.Careful attention is paid to the factor of formation of his personality and behavior analysis.
Within the discipline studied the problem of forming a criminal intent and reckless crime (consumer and professional).
This science has one of the most important sections - criminal psychology of minors.It explores not only the anti-social behavior, but also reveals the environmental factors and personal characteristics of adolescents who are pushing them to the crime.It is from them will depend on its individual response to any life failure.This section also develops recommendations aimed at preventing youth and juvenile delinquency.
special branch of criminal psychology is a forensic psychiatric examination, which is not justified to solve problems of legal content.It is about the credibility of the aims and motives of the crime, identifying the form of guilt and so forth. The subject of the POC - diagnosis of mental non-pathological features of individual participants in the criminal proceedings that are important to establish the truth.
Criminal psychology investigates the social and psychological mechanisms of a group crime.We are talking about the causes of delinquent association, the conditions that contribute to this, concrete social positions of its members, on the hierarchy of interpersonal roles and group dynamics.
all directions discipline related to the search for effective ways and means of preventing the growth of crime.
