Psychopathology of Crime

Criminal psychology

Criminological psychology is the application of psychological principles to criminal activity, especially criminal behavior and its effect on crime prevention, risk assessment and the criminal justice system.

Whilst outside the scope of this brief overview of the subject, the scope of criminal activity within this country (UK) itself is open for debate. The recorded crime figures collated by the various police authorities across the country remain consistency lower than those assembled by the British Crime Surveys that have been in recent years. The survey, carried out every two years, consists of interviews of victims of crime. For example, in 1996 the official crime figures indicated that there had been 5.1 million crimes whilst the BCS estimated that 19.1 million crimes had occurred in the same time period. ( Home Office (1996) Criminal Statistics, London Home Office).

Criminal psychology has, in recent years, certainly been hyped as an all seeing discipline which can solve the vagaries of crime, especially those related to murder with special emphasis on the serial killer. With films such as Silence of the Lambs and the newly released Hannibal, based on books by Thomas Harris, show that perpetrator profiling can be used to indicate how the criminal thinks, their motivation and modus operandi. However, as with most things, it is not quite that