Criterion for Criminal Psychopathological Profiling - Research Paper Example

Criminal Investigation Analysis: Psychological Profiling Criminal Psychopathology Criminal investigation or intelligenceis a broad field and bear great impact in security of the world. Criminal intelligence entails study of criminal scenes and suspected criminals to determine actual criminals and their motives of committing given offenses. Criminal profiling gives even the most accurate data for detecting an actual criminal by accurately analyzing characteristics of individuals associated to particular crimes. Criminal profiling refers to the act of identifying a criminal by thorough analysis of the nature and scene of a crime. Criminal intelligence is important in the field of law and justice as it seeks and gathers information and evidence used for determination of whether a suspect is answerable or unanswerable for criminal acts. Criminal psychopathology, which is the basis of this study, is an extension of criminal intelligence that tends to consider certain crimes as results of mental disorders imminent in a given criminal. Psychopathology refers to personality disorders that base on a myriad of symptoms. The major symptoms usually investigated include bit not limited to lifestyle, antisocial traits, affective and behavioral (Raine, 1997). Criminal psychopathology proves that criminal acts vary in magnitude, and motivated by different mental and social factors. Criminal activities in the view of psychopathology are results of dysfunctions imminent in the given criminal. Psychopathology defends criminals as not offending consciously and usually pushed by certain malfunctions detectable by trained criminal investigators. Without criminal investigators with training and intuition in psychopathology, criminal justice could be committing immense harm to individuals who require special treatment different from the normal handling of common crimes. The disorder criterion with regard to criminal psychopathology argues that criminals have impaired functioning in cognitive, nuero-psychological and learning terms (Schlesinger, 2007). Another argument for disorder criteria is that criminals have impaired social, educational and occupational functioning. The concept of criminal psychopathology is only a valid way of profiling a crime when the given crime occur repeatedly and likely be of a single person. Criterion for Criminal Psychopathological profiling Criminal profiling looks on certain common characteristics associated with given crimes and likely behaviors of committing criminals to determine the actual criminals. There are many techniques of criminal activities and criminal psychopathology is certainly one of the techniques. Different profiling techniques have different criteria to check and analyze to stipulate the actual nature of a crime, underlying intentions, likely characteristics and behaviors of a likely criminal and eventual identification of the actual committing criminal. In the same manner, criminal psychopathology has its imminent criteria to observe and analyze to categorize as due to disorders or certain dysfunctions in a given criminal (Raine, 1997). One of the criterions for considering a crime as due to psychopathology is when the given crime represents some deviations from the statistical norm, although not all criminality can be viewed as statistically deviant. Usually, criminal profilers attach certain features to certain types of crimes and maintain data gather for future use in studying similar crimes. Kocsis (2009) expounds that the data gathered include place and frequency of occurrence of the related crimes. Statistical deviation that can make a crime qualify to be due to psychopathology can include occurrence of the given crime in a place different from its frequent area. Another criteria for classification of a crime as due to psychopathology is when the given crime represents deviation from ideal mental health because it is hard to characterize criminals as being in a state of mental and social well-being (Raine, 1997). Criminal profilers have information and data regarding mental health condition of various criminals they handle having committed given types of crimes. When a given crime depicts signs that the possible perpetrator suffered from mental or social disorder, criminal profilers tend to perform comparison of the findings with the already existing data (Skodol, 1998). Failure of a given crime to meet the statistical data stored about previous crimes, yet it depicts cause as due to certain disorders. A crime also qualifies to be due to psychopathology when the given criminality represents deviation from the normal social norms, since crime is socially unacceptable. Most societies if not all rebuke crimes because criminality results to injuries and reduced development as well as creation of fear among members of the given society (Raine, 1997). A criminal prone are is a perceivable as insecure and no person including natural inhabitants fear investing their businesses to spur development. Concisely, criminal profilers have to determine that a given crime is socially unacceptable and along other unique characteristics to qualify it as due to psychopathology. For a crime to be a cause of psychopathology, criminals committing a given crime must have created distress and suffering to others. Even though the given criminals may suffer from considerable distress and have experienced significant suffering, they do not generally express the conditions (Hare & Neumann, 2009). Psychopathological criminals cause distress and suffering to others because of repetition of the heinous and inhumane nature of the crimes, they commit. Psychopathological criminals also suffer from distress but do not express their suffering, and instead resort to seek pleasure from crime. Psychopathological criminals also exhibit impairments in social, occupational, behavioral, educational and cognitive functioning. Since psychopathology relates to disorder or certain dysfunctions, it is obvious to expect psychopathological criminal to exhibit social dysfunctions such as withdrawal, aggression, and violence among others. Educational dysfunction relates to the criminals demonstrating illiterate reasoning in covering for their crimes or deciding a venue for committing their crimes. Kocsis (2007) elaborate that criminals with educational functioning tend to indulge in complex reasoning such as calculating the distance from their own home and victim’s residence to ensure execution at far away distance to confuse investigations. In addition, criminals with properly functioning educational capabilities use very complex strategies and techniques to conceal their crimes. Furthermore, criminals without disorders are employees of certain institutions and serve well despite having the tendency to commit a given crime. Realizing such individuals through normal investigations is difficult. Psychopathological criminals also have cognitive problems and have troubles recognizing and differentiating between situations and people (Kocsis, 2009). However, the nature of dysfunctions expressed by psychopathological criminals has to be unique and depict significant extremities to qualify as due to psychopathology. Another criterion for profiling a crime as due to psychopathology entails a given criminality meeting the definitions of disorder outlined in the DSM-III-R. A comparative analysis between criminality and other disorders listed in the DSM-III-R suggests that there are good grounds to believe that criminality meets the criteria as well as many other disorders (Raine, 1997). The construct validity approach to psychopathology represents a second approach to assessing crime as a disorder. If a clear nomological network of social, cognitive, biological and genetic relationships is identifiable around criminality and if the criminality were viewable as meeting some of the above criteria, then these two approaches would together raise the possibility that criminality is a disorder. Forms of Criminal Psychopathology and Ways of Profiling In criminology, psychopathology breaks into different categories that broadly include primary psychopathology, secondary psychopathology, inhibited and controlled groups. Primary psychopaths are criminals who are impulsive, hostile, aggressive and extroverted with self-confidence but with low to relative anxiety. The absence of guilt or conscience characterizes antisocial behavior in most primary psychopaths, which make then incurable (Raine, 1997). With the descriptions, a criminal profiler will find realize that crime scene related to a primary psychopath is in disorganized state that any person can suspect anomalies from far. The description of traits of primary psychopaths can make a criminal profiler to expect the victim of a primary psychopath to bear serious harms and injuries, with some wounds appearing to be develop after loss of life. In such cases, it is expectable to find limbs and arms of a victim to have broken and maybe disjointed from the body. As demonstrated by Skodol (1998), criminal profilers investigating criminal primary psychopaths will realize that scene of the crime has blood spills spread to greater circumference. This wide spread of blood can be a manifestation of hostility of the individual criminal in, which the victim may have been swung and thrown repeatedly in many directions. Secondary psychopaths exhibit socially anxious, have retarded social esteem and appear moody. The psychopaths are also aggressive, hostile and impulsive just as the primary psychopaths. The underlying psychopathology is the common motivator for secondary psychopaths to commit their criminal actions, and the psychopaths are treatable. According to Castleden (2005), individuals succumbing to secondary psychopathology are unable to establish interpersonal bonds, and lack conscience as well as empathy. Secondary psychopaths usually leave their scenes of crime in disorganized condition and seem to lack knowledge of criminal intelligence. This is usually because they succumb to motivations of the underlying disorder they suffer. Due to lack of empathy and conscience, secondary psychopaths can harm their victims and continue to injure them even when situation evidence the victim to be apologetic and begging for sparing of their life (Schlesinger, 2007). It is also possible for secondary psychopaths to kill their victims and leave them without any further injuries if so guided by their underlying disorders. Many serial killers happily lure their victims to the scene of harm. The case is different for secondary psychopaths to knowledge that they have problem establishing interpersonal bonds, which is also expectable for their victims. To detect and profile a crime scene as related to secondary psychopath, one can check for signs of struggle and perhaps signs that a criminal applied force to drag a victim to the area of execution. Controlled class of psychopathology encompasses individuals with defensive, sociable and controlled characteristics, and exhibit high self-esteem and low anxiety. To detect controlled psychopaths and perform successful profiling, an investigator can analyze the nature of harm on the victim and state of the crime scene. Since controlled psychopaths have significant control, the scene of crime is likely to miss signs to demonstrate struggle between the criminal and the victim (Kocsis, 2007). Missing signs of struggle in the crime can also prove the sociable nature of the criminal that may confirm that they lure their victims to the scene of execution. Furthermore, low anxiety and controlled nature of controlled criminals can enable them properly lay the victims in a manner that is hard to realize any murder. Inhibited class of psychopathology encompasses criminals who exhibit shyness, moderate anxiety, and withdrawn, controlled and low self-esteem. Psychopathological criminals falling in inhibited class are shy and have the tendency of dragging their victims deep into a very secrete place where they execute their criminal intentions. The low self-esteem of inhibited psychopaths makes the criminals to have reduced confidence and courage that prevent them from causing serious harm or injuries to the victims (Castleden, 2005). The moderate anxiety can make the criminals leave scenes of crime in relatively disorganized state. References Castleden, R. (2005). Serial Killers. England: Time Warner. Hare, R., Neumann, C., (2009). Psychopathy: Assessment and Forensic Implications. Canadian Journal of Psychiatry, 54, (12), 791-802. Kocsis, R. N. (2007). Criminal profiling: International theory, research and practice. Totowa, N.J: Humana Press. Kocsis, R. N. (2009). Applied Criminal Psychology: A Guide to Forensic Behavioral Sciences. Springfield: Charles C Thomas Publisher, LTD. Raine, A. (1993). The psychopathology of crime: Criminal behavior as a clinical disorder. San Diego: Academic Press. Schlesinger, L. B. (2007). Explorations in criminal psychopathology: Clinical syndromes with forensic implications. Springfield, Ill: Charles C. Thomas, Publisher. Skodol, A. E. (1998). Psychopathology and violent crime. Washington: American Psychiatric Press. Read More