In the study of law enforcement, understanding criminal behavior is a crucial process, particularly because this knowledge is utilized in different levels of criminal justice, such as court systems and correctional facilities. Nonetheless, clear comprehension of criminal behavior is sophisticated since it places them in various settings of law enforcement. Professionally, understanding criminal behavior is known as criminal profiling. Typically, the overall process entails a critical examination of a criminal’s profile based on their behavioral traits. The significance of understanding criminal behavior is entrenched in the idea that this requires learned criminal justice officials, particularly those that are capable of engaging in this practice based on their sworn duties. The bigger picture of having psychological comprehension of criminal behavior as well as tools for assessing psychopathy is that they positively impact criminal justice system since they are responsible for ensuring cases are solved more efficiently.
Benefits of Psychological Understanding of Criminal Behavior to the Criminal Justice Field
An exploration of what psychological understanding of criminal behavior involves shows that the most notable benefit is the ability to narrow down on a criminal based on traits. The discipline of criminal psychology is linked with providing criminal psychologists with the right platform to advance their comprehension of human behavior (Kiehl & Hoffman, 2014). As a result, this enables them to work closely with other law enforcement agencies, such as attorneys and courts to resolve civil and criminal cases. The collaboration between different departments in the name of psychological understanding of criminal behavior is that it allows law enforcement agencies to play the role of a consultant. As consultants, psychology comprehension off criminal behavior allows these individuals to participate in various phases of profiling. For instance, the pertinent law enforcers can participate in the trial phase, act as the accused or victims, as well as get to presume the role of expert witnesses. In doing so, psychological understanding of criminal behavior gives law enforcers the chance to be consultants and, in the process, get to assist in rehabilitating criminals.
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Law enforcers with psychological comprehension of criminal behavior are quite useful in forensic field since they get to apply principles of criminal psychology to resolve crimes. For instance, law enforcers with psychological understanding of criminal behavior help in forensics to evaluate possible victims, especially focusing on exhibited behavior to determine their innocence or guilt. Such a scenario involves performing psychological examination of an individual to determine whether their aptitude allows them to stand prosecution. Besides, these officers can help with further understanding of all the events based on a suspect’s behavior (Andrews & Bonta, 2014). That is, officers with psychological knowledge of criminal behavior can help establish everything about a specific case by questioning these individuals about all events that led to the current situation. On close examination, researchers agree that the importance of law enforcers having knowledge of criminal behavior is important since it gives them the power to solve cases more efficiently.
Psychological understanding of criminal behavior is also beneficial to criminal justice in that it allows criminologists to provide expert testimonies during trial process. Apparently, for law enforcers to have a clear understanding of criminal behavior, it is because they have interacted with people in different situation. This is interpreted to mean that these individuals have vast knowledge in different areas, which is why they are capable of dealing in diverse cases (Patrick, 2018). For example, criminologists work with victims and witnesses and this gives them the chance to deduce accurate information, even in situations where the possibility of inaccurate information is high during interrogation process. One such situation is when criminologists work with children victims or witnesses to help develop clearer pictures regarding a particular crime case. The vastness of their knowledge and proficiency in psychological comprehension of criminal behavior allows them to be in a better position to determine whether information presented in a case is reliable or not.
The field of criminal justice benefits greatly from psychological understanding of criminal behavior, such as expertise knowledge being used to address psychological theories applicable to legal issues. Patrick (2018) theorizes this idea by positing that psychological comprehension of criminal behavior is vital in establishing personal relationship with clients. For instance, criminologists with this expertise are known to establish one-on-one therapy sessions with clients, more so for situations that involve the issue of court orders. Therapy sessions are mostly used with individuals believed to have psychopathy. In the criminal justice system, this is important in that psychopathy has a higher possibility of causing crimes (Kiehl & Hoffman, 2014). That is, psychopaths have 20-25 times more likely to be involved in crimes than non-psychopathy.
The Impact of Tools for Assessing Psychopathy in the Criminal Justice Field
The assessment tools of psychopathy, such as PCL-R, are notable for assisting in examining a person’s psychopathy. The significance of this assessment tool is that they are known to provide extensive evidence that is linked with being reliable and valid. The scales are primarily designed to measure clinical constructs of psychopathy, and, in doing so, get to demonstrate specific occurrences in criminal justice field. That is, these psychopathy assessment tools are capable of helping with predictions of violence, recidivism, as well as treatment outcomes (Patrick, 2018). On this note, the assessment tools of psychopathy, such as PCL-R and MPG benefit the criminal justice field by helping law enforcers to determine criminals with mental problems. For example, the PCL-R is used to make sure that individuals are not believed to be suffering from psychopathy, while all they suffer from is fear. The process of examination allows officers to examine offenders with psychopathy, and this gives them the chance to make sure that they are just in their ruling. Being just is interpreted to mean that these tools of assessment are used to determine if an individual’s high probability to be involved in crimes is caused by psychopathy, thus allowing the assimilation of better strategies to help them deal with mental disorders.
The impact of the tools of assessment of psychopathy is that the criminal justice field uses them in determining whether a criminal suffers from psychopathy, hence establishing the right mode of punishment or correction. The benefit of the tools to the criminal justice system is that they provide law enforcers with solutions appropriate to help criminals in the recovery process. This happens when criminal justice system uses the tools for assessing psychopathy to reduce crimes, particularly after establishing the root of problems that lead to psychopathy (Tangney et al., 2012). The use of PCL-R or MPG tools benefit the criminal justice field by allowing law enforcers to determine whether suspects are suffering from psychopathy, thus having better chances to focus on subjecting every individual to the right trial process. Overall improvements in this field mean that officers are in better position to identify deficits as well as core features of psychopathy. From a general approach, the situation among most officers is that they are incapable of handling criminals with mental disorder. For instance, the tools of assessing psychopathy allow law enforcers to distinguish individuals’ personality, as either being influenced by psychopathy or not, and this is used to determine the best means of prosecution to use.
Conclusion
In conclusion, the field of criminal justice benefits from officers having psychological understanding of criminal behavior as well as tools for assessing psychopathy. Law enforcers with psychological understanding of criminal behavior help in forensics to evaluate possible victims, especially focusing on exhibited behavior to determine their innocence or guilt. since it helps law enforcers to provide excellent services. Similarly, the tools for assessing psychopathy are also beneficial to the field of criminal justice since they are linked with providing valid and reliable data on whether an individual is suffering from psychopathy, and what is the right trail process. In conclusion, psychological understanding of criminal behavior and the use of tools of assessing psychopathy have been momentous in the criminal justice filed, particularly making sure that suspects get the right trial based on their mental ability.
References
Andrews, D., & Bonta, J. (2014). The psychology of criminal conduct . Routledge.
Kiehl, K. A., & Hoffman, M. (2014). The criminal psychopath: History, neuroscience, treatment, and economics. Jurimetrics , 51 , 355–397. Retrieved from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4059069/#:~:text=That%20is%2C%20p sychopaths%20are%2015,being%20in%20prison%20than%20psychopathy
Patrick, C. J. (2018). Handbook of psychopathy (2nd ed.). New York: Guilford Publications.
Tangney, J. P., Stuewig, J., Furukawa, E., Kopelovich, S., Meyer, P. J., & Cosby, B. (2012). Reliability, validity, and predictive utility of the 25-item criminogenic cognitions scale (CCS). Criminal Justice and Behavior , 39 (10), 1340-1360. https://doi.org/10.1177/0093854812451092
