Psychological Factors of Crime and Constitutional Criminal Procedure - Thesis Example

15 May Psychological Factors of Crime and Constitutional Criminal Procedure Introduction This paper will be divided into two parts Factors responsible for Crime 2. Factors responsible for tackling the crime The first part of the paper will be talking on the various aspects of factors which have been responsible for crime. The objective is to gain a thorough understanding of the causes which lead to the commitment of crime in the society. The paper will discuss the means and efforts taken up by individuals in the society to inflict pain on the people. Let us analyse the first part of the paper which talks about the psychological factors affecting crime. Psychoanalytic Theory Sigmund Freud talks about the “psychoanalytic theory”. According to this theory, the human mind in its natural stage does not harbour any sort of crime or hatred towards the community or its fellow beings. However, once the human being starts interacting with the society do the traits develop of negativity and crime. While the person interacts with people around him, he starts altering his mind and behaviour according to the developments taking place within the society. This can have a huge impact on the behavioural aspects of the human beings. The theory talks about the stage from an individual starts to give birth to negative traits about humanity. This happens if the person is outward in his emotions and tends to dislike and be disinterested with his life. Once he starts to get disinterested in the role of his life according to the societal needs, there is a great chance that he may start questioning the very reason for a society to exist. Once all these questions brew in his mind, it all gives birth to a criminal mind, which accompanied by outward nature of emotional occurrence could lead to killings and other aspects of crime. So on one hand we see that human behaviour is always positive, but on the other hand we find that there are instances and situations where the negativity within the human mind takes over the conscious framework of happiness ad goodness for fellow beings, due to the nature of the society that the man starts to develop hatred for the same. It is extremely tough for minds which are weak in their consciousness to hold them tolerant for all the negativity surrounding their habitat. At the end of the day a lot of people do give in to the unfortunates of the society, and the fact that they are not able to defeat that negativity in their minds leads to crime in the society, whereby they take weapons and other means of mass destructions to eke out this negativity somehow form their system. One of the main reasons of crime is the fact that the person who has developed a criminal mind has not been able to throw out the frustrations and negativity which has been living in his mind out of his system. Frustrated with life and other aspects of the society, he tries to find out means to throw away this frustration. But unfortunately he is not able to. Once he realizes that it is not going anywhere for him, and the fact that society seems to be largely responsible for his growing frustration and negativity, he decides that the best way to throw away such frustration is to give the negativity back to the people of the society, And this is where the phenomenon of crime starts to develop. A person takes upto crime due to a lot of sociological factors which get embedded into psychological factors. Society has been very much responsible for the derailment of humanity and the development of crime. The factor of crime always remains a negative factor as no one individual has been attracted to commit a crime in the first place. However, social inequalities and differences which have been casted upon the people have led to the ever growing situation of crime across different societies. Let us take an example of a man who has been going through a rough patch. He has been side-lined in his profession and does not have any hope to survive in his life. On top of that, his house is under stress from the landlord who has threatened him to vacate the house. He has been pushed to the corner by all forces from all four sides and does not have anywhere to go. At this stage, the person is the most vulnerable to negative thoughts creeping into his mind and taking his conscious over. And this is where he falls of the cliff and ends up committing crime to feed his family and also to get some self-respect back. Unusually, it has been said and mentioned that crime has been one of the most common ways where a person who has been down and out can reclaim his self-respect and confidence back. Law and the Crime The law looks at crime in a very perennial fashion. It has the duty of imposing fair rule over the citizens of the state, and therefore has to counter crime to achieve an ideal society. In order to deal with crime, the law first has to understand the meaning of crime and how it is committed. Following is the legal definition of crime: “a violation of a law in which there is injury to the public or a member of the public and a term in jail or prison, and/or a fine as possible penalties. There is some sentiment for excluding from the "crime" category crimes without victims, such as consensual acts, or violations in which only the perpetrator is hurt or involved such as personal use of illegal drugs” Understanding from the above given definition, crime is an act which is committed beyond the boundaries of law. It is an act in violation of the law, and therefore it has to be in violation of the societal norms and aspects as well. A crime is an action which threatens to hurt the people living in the society. It is an act by people which manages to breaks the accepted norms of the society. It goes beyond the boundaries of the law and challenges the validity of the law by being an anti-law act. Following is another definition of crime which looks at it from a different perspective: “A crime is a wrongdoing classified by the state or Congress as a felony or misdemeanour. A crime is an offence against a public law. This word, in its most general sense, includes all offences, but in its more limited sense is confined to felony. The term offence may be considered as having the same meaning, but is usually understood to be a crime not indictable but punishable, summarily or by the forfeiture of a penalty.” The most fundamental aspect of crime is that it has to be a violation of a public law, as seen from the above definition. It has to be a violation of the principles of the society and not of one particular individual. If an action on the part of a person is hurting one man and not violating the code of the society then that particular action is a tort and not a crime under any circumstances. Let us now study the ingredients which are important for any man to commit a crime. Following are the ingredients of crime: 1. Mens Rea 2. Actus Reus Mens Rea is defined as the following: “Criminal intent; the thoughts and intentions behind a wrongful act (including knowledge that the act is illegal); often at issue in murder trials” It is a Latin term for “Guilty Mind”. The term originated to signify the meaning of the existence of the feeling of guilt or a wrong doing while committing the crime. Analysing the meaning of mens rea, we indulge in the most basic and fundamental psychological aspect of the commission of the crime. It is understood that the whole action of the crime first stems from a though. It is indeed a thought process which emancipates an idea. The mind is the place where an idea is born. So for any action committed by human beings, there has to be a thought involved in it. For crimes, the mind has to have a negative side to it to actually make the wrong happen and convince oneself that the wrong was infact the right thing to do at that particular time. A criminal always has to have something guilty, wrong or negative in his mind to actually convince his conscious mind to commit the crime even though to the society it looks bad as well as looking bad on the paper. This feeling is termed as Mens Rea. To prove that a certain act has criminal intention behind it, we need to understand that there has to be an element of mens rea in the mind of the wrong doer. It is through the actions of the wrong doer do we understand and find out whether there was a criminal intention or not. An act is not a crime until and unless there has been a criminal intention to that particular act. Once it has been established that such an act had criminal intention to it then such an act becomes a crime Mens rea includes the feeling for committing a crime. Let us take for an example a man who committed a murder. But later on it was figured by the administration that the murder took place due to some accident at the time and place where it took place. After further court proceedings it was established that the murder had no criminal intention behind it. It was just an accident on the part of the accused. However, before we go further into this aspect it is pertinent to note the other ingredient which is very important for the comprehensive commission of crime. It is known as “Actus Reus” Following is the definition of Actus Reus: “The voluntary and wrongful act or omission that constitutes the physical components of a crime. Because a person cannot be punished for bad thoughts alone, there can be no criminal liability without actus reus.” Understanding from the above definition, we gain that actus reus is the actual commission of the criminal thought in the mind of the criminal. It is the real commission of the crime which makes it redundant. It will not be enough just to have a criminal thought. There has to be something to exercise the particular thought into reality which in effect shall harm the society and the people living in the society. Actus Reus is the actual completion of the criminal intent of thought of the human mind. It is the performance of the thought into actual reality which has been harmonized and contemplated from different angles within the diameter of the human mind It is of extreme importance to understand that without the existence of both the elements a crime cannot be said to be committed. A crime is only committed when the act of the intention of the person is identified and acted upon by the individual. Therefore, we gain an understanding that actus reus is the final commission of the crime. It is the acting of the thought process which lingers in the mind of the human who has a criminal intent. A crime cannot be said to have been done until the two ingredients of it are fulfilled. If there is any doubt in the minds of the judge that either of the elements have not been fulfilled in the understanding of the act as to whether it was a crime or not, then the particular act cannot be identified as crime since it does not fulfil all the criteria of it. Therefore, once it can be established that both the criteria of crime have been met, then the particular action can be said to be a crime. Crime and Mental Satisfaction: A psychological Study It has been argued over time by experts and other ideologists that crime is nothing but a way to extract mental satisfaction for one. A crime is committed due to the inadequacies within the mental system of the wrong doer. Psychology of the criminal goes a long way in determining the manner in which crime is committed. It is upto the person who commits the crime to control his anger and other negativities. To understand crime committed in the state, it is imperative to study the cause of crime. The psychological factors stem from the state of mind of the criminal. It is the state of mind which determines the action taken by the person in pursuit of crime. When asked by criminals what brings them the most satisfaction, most of them have said that there is a certain satisfaction stemming out of the crime committed by them. This has not been surprising as the psyche of an individual comes from the kind of work he does to maintain a level of peace in himself. The negative thoughts of the mind play a huge role in determining the character of the individual. Every man has a dark side, and it all depends on how one approaches his dark side with respect to mental peace. A man who has not been able to define his mental health with respect to positivity suffers from having a criminal mind retrospectively. Social factors play a very important role, however in determining the complete personality of a person we need to understand why is the reason that such and such person is behaving in a certain way. There needs to be objectivity with regard to the understanding of a particular person’s behaviour. Criminal Procedure Crime needs to be punished in any civilized society. It is the duty of the Constitution of the respective countries to punish crime. Crime can never go unpunished. The Constitution therefore has the responsibility to punish crime wherever it takes place in the State. There are multiple theories as to the way crime is being punished in countries and jurisdictions all over the world. Understanding Punishment: “Some pain or penalty warranted by law, inflicted on a person, for the commission of a crime or misdemeanour, or for the omission of the performance of an act required by law, by the judgment and command of some lawful court.” Punishment is a way of paying back from the State for the crime committed by the person. It is a way of giving back what he gave to the State in the form of retribution or revenge as one may attribute. It is the way the State makes the offender realize the mistake committed by him in the course of the commission of crime. Punishment is levied on those individuals who are found to be guilty of crime committed against the State. One question which has been asked many a times is that when a crime is committed against one individual then why does the State takes the action and not the person himself who has faced the crime. The answer to this question lies in the fact that the State takes it as its moral responsibility to punish the offender who committed the crime. In a tort action the State does not do anything. However when it comes to a crime, the State takes it as an action which is not only committed against the person but also the State itself, and therefore as part of the prosecution the State fights in favour of the person against whom the crime has been committed. The message over here is very clear. The State is trying to portray that a crime is not only committed against the person but also the Constitution and that it is against the spirit of the Constitution, and therefore the State has the moral obligation and duty to cast itself in the foot of the victim and get justice for him as well as send a message that crime shall not be tolerated in the society under any circumstances. “Punishment is the authoritative imposition of something negative or unpleasant on a person or animal in response to behaviour deemed wrong by an individual or group.” Punishments differ in the manner of severity, and may include sanctions, reprimands as well as fines. Punishments are given according to the crime committed, and for different degrees of crimes the punishment are handed out accordingly. Theory of Punishment There are four theories of punishment which shall be studied and understood in depth in this paper. Following are the theories of punishment: 1. Retributive 2. Preventive 3. Deterrent 4. Rehabilitative Retributive Punishment Retributive form of punishment is the most common form of punishment in the common law scenario. It is the form of punishment where the State takes revenge or retribution for the crime committed by the offender. “the act of punishing or taking vengeance for wrongdoing, sin, or injury; punishment or vengeance.” It is the act of doing even with the wrong doer. The State takes revenge for the act committed by the offender in the way that it goes even with the criminal for doing the crime. The State takes the role of structure where it inflicts the same amount of pain and suffering on the wrong doer which the criminal had done on his victim. The purpose of this form of punishment is to make the person realise how much pain and suffering he had inflicted on his victim, so that he never ever repeats the crime again in his life. Retributive form of punishment is given in rare circumstances. It is mostly given in murder trials or rape cases where the crime has been committed which extreme horrendousness and needs special attention at the outset from the State. Retribution is the way of giving the offender punishment which is equal to the crime committed by him, and no more. In other words, this form of punishment envisages that the criminal get what he inflicted on his victim to satisfy the resentment of the victim. Therefore, in a murder case, retributive form of punishment would invite a death penalty, as said by the father of economics Adam Smith. In his literally works he had mentioned the need to satisfy the resentment of the victim as much as he suffered, and the pain casted by the State should not go beyond the degree of crime committed by the offender. Thus, in a case of forgery or theft, a death penalty would be too much in return for the offender, and the appropriate punishment would be to put him in jail. Let us now analyse the concept of Retributive Justice, the definition of which is as follows: “given or inflicted in requital according to merits or deserts; "retributive justice; "retributive justice demands an eye for an eye” Even though the concept of “an eye for an eye” has been condemned by the preachers and followers of non-violence, it is however of extreme importance to understand that even today capital punishment is given to the murderers who gruesomely kill their victim, and this concept is said to be very befitting for such cases. Retributive punishment is focussing on getting on equal terms with the offender. It envisages on the idea that the victim has the right to get equal with the criminal, and therefore the State takes the responsibility of getting equal with the offender by giving him retributive punishment. Another factor which needs to be taken into account is that when a victim is given suffering by the criminal, a lot of emotions run high against the criminal from the victim. These emotions are characteristics of the fact that the victim has suffered immensely by the offender and therefore has the urge to get back at him. Psychological research has indicated that the pain is more mental than physical and that the negativity remains inside the head of the victim against the crime committed against him, and until and unless something is done by the State the victim suffers mentally. The idea is to take away the mental suffering and the trauma from the minds of the victim by giving retributive punishment to the offender. Justice is sought out from getting even with the criminal. When a man commits a crime, retribution form of justice invites the State to take action against the offender. Justice is served through outing the criminal through the same mental and physical trauma which he gave to the victim so that it sets a precedent and a standard for the coming generations to come. Therefore, to conclude with his form punishment, it is imperative to gain an understanding as to the cause and effect of the whole idea of retribution. Psychologically it is a mental distribution of the torture and the trauma faced by the victim and it is the State’s method of finding justice through the eyes of the victim by giving the offender the taste of his own medicine. Deterrent Punishment: “Deterrence can be defined as the prevention of socially undesirable behaviour by fear of punishment. A person who might otherwise have committed a crime is restrained by the thought of the unpleasant consequences of detection, trial, conviction, and sentence ("simple deterrence"). A distinction is often made between general deterrence, which signifies the deterrent effect of the threat of punishment, and special deterrence (or individual deterrence), which signifies the effect of actual punishment on the offender.” Understanding from the above mentioned definition, it can be concurred that deterrence is a form of punishment where the offender is given fierce punishment so as to deter the society from committing the crime again. It is a fear which is put in the minds of the people. Psychologically, the State puts fear in the minds of the people by giving extreme punishment for the crime committed to therefore set a precedent that such acts shall not be tolerated in the future, and if anyone commits such acts then that person shall face the same consequences. The idea is to instil fear in the minds of the people that crime shall not be tolerated in any form in the society and that it is for the betterment of the society that traitors and criminals are given severe punishment for the wrong they have done in the State. Deterrence has been quite common in the 18th and the 19th century, however, at the turn of the 20th century it has been reduced to a minority. General deterrence means that the society as a whole is taken into account by the State and the punishment is served to the criminal which sends a signal to the people. The thought process lies in generalizing the concept of punishment that no form of crime shall be tolerated by the State and therefore general deterrence is given for most of the crimes which take place in the society. “The basic phenomenon is the fear of punishment. This fear may be influenced by the experience of punishment. When an offender has been punished he knows what it is like to be prosecuted and punished, and this may strengthen his fear of the law. The experience may, however, work the other way.” Analysing the above paragraph from a credible source, we realize that the process is to scare the criminal who commits the crime and potential criminals breeding in the society. The fear of the law is the most important thing as far as deterrence is concerned and it is this fear which drives people out of the scene of crime. It is imperative for the offender to understand that crime is in no way accepted in the society and the psychology works in the negative way where fear is used as a tool and a weapon by the State to stop the flow of crime in the society. Therefore, deterrence is the form of punishment where the criminal is seized to exist and fear is used by the State to stop potential crimes happening in the society as well as making the criminal realize that in no way shall crime be tolerated by the society. Preventive Punishment: “The confinement in a secure facility of a person who has not been found guilty of a crime. Preventive detention is a special form of imprisonment. Most persons held in preventive detention are criminal defendants, but state and federal laws also authorize the preventive detention of persons who have not been accused of crimes, such as certain mentally ill persons.” Understanding from the above mentioned definition , preventive punishment is a form of punishment where the potentiality of the crime is anticipated by the State. After anticipating the potential crime and the criminal, it might chose to put them under prison or behind the bard so as to avoid any clashes or anti-social activities in the society. The idea is to realize the possibility of crime taking place in the State and the action from the State is pro-active in order to avoid any criminal activity taking place in the society. One of the most popular forms of preventive detention took place in India in the time of emergency when the then Prime Minister of India Indira Gandhi put a lot of socialist activist behind the bard even though they did not commit any crime, but in the anticipation that something might go wrong if they are let scot free. The State is doing fulfilling the role of a moral police where it puts the potential criminals behind the bars. Preventive punishment however does not take place in all the circumstances and therefore there are special circumstances where preventive form of punishment is applied by the State. Such circumstances may arise in not every situation but in some or the other situations. This could be riots, communal tension or the state of emergency. Under such circumstances where is pertinent to have a curfew being launched in the State so as to avoid any clashes between the masses, preventive detention acts as the best form of punishment of avoiding and preventing any further crime happening in the State. The psychology therefore works on not letting the crime happen. It is a pro-active measure from the State and therefore it not reactive as opposed to the other kinds of punishments carried out by the State on the criminals. Rehabilitative Punishment: “Tending to reform; "reformative and rehabilitative agencies"; "reformatory punishment; Serving to induce reform.” “forming again; having the quality of renewing form; reformatory” Under this form of punishment, the State strives to reform the criminal by putting him in cells where his personality can be developed, he repents for his crime, gets back to his normal life and therefore is released from the jail as soon as possible. This form of punishment has been lauded to be the best of its kind by many scholars. The idea of reformative/rehabilitative punishment can be read from the terminology itself. The psychology works on the aspect of changing the complete lifestyle of the criminal by reforming him into a civilized human being. This calls for some serious development of the mind of the criminal as the State tries to change the mind and the thought process of the criminal by placing him in free cells and giving him more liberation than what is expected to be for an offender. Reformative punishment helps to cure the mental ailment of the criminal by giving him different psychological therapies which helps to remove the negativity and the feeling of ill will towards the society. It is an extremely delicate process and should be carried out by utmost care. The State is in the best position to carry out this duty and has special areas to rehabilitate the criminals. Crime takes place first in the mind as understood in the paper earlier, and therefore reformative form of punishment is the best possible way of curing crime from the society as well as reducing the number of criminals in the softest manner possible which is more humane in nature and therefore allows for the development of the criminal as the individual. Since crime first takes place within the minds of the people, the State feels the best punishment is to remove that feeling of crime from the minds of the criminals. Once that is done then no other punishment can be as beneficial as this form of punishment, since the factor of crime is removed from the mind the offender will not do such acts which may hurt the society at large. This whole process not only removes the factor of crime in a positive way from the minds of the criminal but also makes him a better person and a human being who could be of some use to the society. Therefore, to remove crime completely it is important for the State to read the psychology of the offender and then react accordingly. If the State feels that there is scope for development, which in most cases does exist, then the State should strive to inflict this form of punishment on to the offender, which not only serves the point of the punishment but also goes beyond any other form of punishment in the way of the overall personality development of the criminal, which thus makes a negative character into a positive one and a person who could be of use to the society. Works Cited http://www.thefreedictionary.com/retribution http://www.thefreedictionary.com/Retributive+justice http://legal-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/preventive+detention http://www.lectlaw.com/def2/p201.htm http://legal-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/punishment http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/legal-punishment/ Hugo, Adam Bedau (February 19, 2010). "Punishment, Crime and the State". Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Retrieved 2010-08-04 McAnany, Patrick D. (August 2010). "Punishment". Online. Grolier Multimedia Encyclopedia. Retrieved 2010-08-04 Kleining, John (October 1972). "R.S. Peters on Punishment" (Review article). British Journal of Educational Studies 20 (03): 259–269. Retrieved 2010-08-09 http://www.thefreedictionary.com/reformative http://www.definitions.net/definition/reformative Read More