Criminal Psychology In Criminal Justice

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Criminal psychology is the study of those who commit serious crimes, being able to understand their mindset in relation to aspects of their life, from infanthood to adulthood, including facets such as individual upbringing, mental health, and oftentimes in cases of sexual assault and even homicide - sexual preferences. This behavioral study is used by criminal profilers in analyzing and understanding the patterns of offender’s motives and modus operandi. In many instances studies of “true crimes” are used to call out the miscarriages of justice that comes from prejudice against victims and manipulation from perpetrators of legal officials and juries using appeals to feelings and twisted ethics.Within criminal psychology it is important to evaluate …show more content…

Studies like criminal psychology help to keep structures like this in check to prevent injustices and discrimination, as well as helping to understand the motives and behaviors of criminals to recognize and prevent violent behavior before it occurs. Once you realize the commonalities in criminals , especially the occurrences of physical and sexual traumas present among many sociopaths, you can understand the patterns they follow. It is crucial for criminal profilers to recognize their subjects positive aspects, intelligence, social influence and open-mindedness, as well as their shortcomings and fatal flaws. Criminal profilers ability to understand the behaviors and thoughts of those who are driven to violent offenses and their victims, histories, motives, and personal lives allows these law enforcement agents to understand and recognize criminals and the crimes they commit, as well as society’s role, after and even before they …show more content…

Empathy and sympathy being traits frequently lost among violent and sexual offenders, being unable to understand or feel the sensitivities of their victims. About “58.8% of participants used in a study of sexual offenders in Taiwan tested positively for having Cluster B disorders”(Chen). These disorders are “pervasive and inflexible, [have] an onset in adolescence or early adult­hood, [are] stable over time, and lead to distress or impairment” (APA, 677). This includes disorders such as antisocial personality disorder, in which 29.4% of participants were found to test positively for. Antisocial personality disorder is understandably diagnosed as “a pervasive pattern of disregard for and violation of the rights of others occurring since age 15 years, as indicated by three (or more) of the following: having hurt, mistreated, or stolen from another” (APA, 659). It is important to understand that in most cases these personality disorders can only arise from a source of trauma in the perpetrators early life. As has been noted among many serial killers, domestic violence breeds an aggressive cycle of maltreatment among families and spouses. Criminal profilers are able to recognize this commonality of psychological anomalies

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