Some aspects of criminal psychology are complementary

Scientists did not begin to apply psychological facts in an orderly manner until, during the First World War, that is, about forty years after Wundt established the first psychology laboratory in Leipzig, and then this progress was expelled thanks to the efforts made in the field of testing and analysis of human mental and practical abilities. 

Factors that have directed psychologists to apply their information in various fields of human activity:

1.  Interest in the study of childhood and adolescence and the application of the integrative approach in studying the stages of personality formation.

2.     Interest in studying the motives of behavior, especially the unconscious motivational factors, with the effect of studies carried out by Freud and scholars of the psychoanalytic school.

3.     Interest in analyzing human mental and mechanical capabilities and putting various tests to measure them and to assess personality traits and social trends.

These modern currents in psychology have led to the establishment of three important branches in applied psychology:

 educational psychology, medical psychology, and industrial psychology. 

 

However, these three branches have all benefited from the previously mentioned modern currents, so the study of childhood and adolescence is The first motivation that prompted psychologists to study human behavior in all its normal and pathological manifestations, and to consolidate the reasons for cooperation between the physician, the psychologist and the sociologist, and in these three branches also the tests are widely used in an organized scientific manner supported by statistical facts, and finally it is noticed that the studies that deal with The description and interpretation of human behavior is characterized by the dynamic trend that views personality as an arena for the struggle of motives, tendencies and desires, and when we review most of the research published in psychology journals in its various branches, we have the right to decide that psychology has in fact become anthropology that is concerned with studying the factors leading to the integrity of personality Humanity, or to prevent this integration, its imbalance or its disintegration.

The integrative trend in psychological studies is very recent, and it did not dominate the thinking of scientists except slowly and after repeated failed attempts that were limited to explaining them to one factor, either the physiological factor, the psychological factor or the social factor. As a result of this limitation, all reform attempts ended in failure, which evaluates The evidence for the error of interpretation by one factor and the need to study the various factors that intertwine and interact define the behavioral manifestations in their complexity and bifurcation, and the failure of reform attempts before adopting the complementary viewpoint is very clear in the field of the treatment of minors outlaws and the treatment of criminals in general, as we will briefly explain later.

Criminal behavior is a normal phenomenon in human societies, especially in civilized societies that are characterized by overcrowding in large cities, and the treatment of criminals 

- whether from the point of punishment or the point of reform and prevention 

- has raised many problems, and what drew attention to these problems and highlighted their danger are three main factors: 

 

Printing studies The psychological nature of the social, the social reformer's realization that prevention in the field of crime is better than treatment, the development of the philosophy of punishment.

If criminality is a normal phenomenon, then this does not mean that it is a normal phenomenon without which a society cannot in principle exist. 

 

Social psychologists consider criminal behavior in most of its light or dangerous manifestations an anomalous behavioral manifestation, and one of the symptoms of personality mismatch, and they soon realized that what applies to Interpretation of behavior in general also applies to the interpretation of criminal behavior, that there is no special psychology of delinquents and criminals.

Accordingly, the study of personality in its composition and complementarity, that is, the study of the factors that transform the human-animal into a social person, becomes the best way to highlight the factors leading to incompatibility and disturbance, and deviation of social behavior. 

Criminal anti-social behavior, although it is anomalous from a social point of view, is still subject For a general psychological explanation, However, special research dealing with criminal behavior can be confined to one science, which is criminal psychology, which is a branch of social psychology, which in turn is based on general psychology.

Criminal psychology distinguishes between two degrees of illegal behavior: the behavior of minors and the behavior of adult adults, the first is called delinquency4 and the second is criminality. From a purely legal standpoint, the two terms can be translated with the word criminality, but we prefer to differentiate between them, to indicate the existing discrimination Now, in the treatment of both parties, delinquency is translated as janah, and we limit the term criminality to criminality, and the word Jannah (by joining) indicates the meaning of sin as mentioned in the language dictionaries (p. 174 of the book of the enlightening lamp); 

Therefore, the delinquent is the delinquent versus the criminal.

Delinquent and criminal behavior is divided in terms of its psychological study into the following stages:

(1) The motives for committing the act in violation of morality and law and the interaction of these motives with social motives.

(2) Establishing the guilt of the accused, and this topic deals with the criticism of testimony, the effect of developing memories and forgetfulness, factors deceiving the senses and distorting perception, then using some practical means in the criminal investigation.

 (3) Estimating criminal responsibility and thus determining the type and severity of punishment, or in more general terms: Determine the type of transaction, whether it is intended as a contract the following, we will be satisfied with the importance of an integrative approach in studying the causes of crime and the means of treatment.

Causes of crime:
 The last opinion that science has reached in explaining criminality is that it is not possible to explain criminal social behavior by returning it to one basic factor, but rather that several interacting factors must be considered a dynamic interaction, just like any kind of behavior, then there is no One stable model for the criminal, and it is impossible - if not impossible
- to describe the criminal’s personality in an absolute way. Rather, what must be done is to distinguish between different types of crimes and link these types to their social and cultural circumstances, and on this basis, the world may reconcile in distinguishing between multiple models of Criminals, however, attempts to classify crimes and criminals are still in their infancy and taxonomic studies have yet to yield conclusive results.

By looking at the development of theories in criminology, it becomes clear to us that scientists did not discover the value of the integrative approach in social studies until after several attempts that began a century and a half ago, and this long stage intersects with periods of progress and retreat,
 so that many of the partial facts that are fixed today have already been revealed and then neglected Then it was redisclosed, and it was scientifically stabilized only after its incorporation into a comprehensive theory that takes into account the various aspects of the human personality in the various circles that surrounded it during its formation and development.

The first scientific attempts to establish criminology began in the early nineteenth century, and scientists viewed crime as a necessary result of social conditions, and attention at first turned to study the distribution of crimes according to regions and environments, and this research led to the formation of the school known as the geographic school. 

This approach is to study the distribution of crimes and the change in their proportions, but they also analyzed the juvenile wing and the criminality of crime professionals, and a second school that believed in economic inevitability limited its interest to study the relationship between crime and economic conditions, and the direction of the two schools, both geographic and economic, was a sound, albeit partial, scientific direction. Their research resulted in partial facts that the emerging criminology was able to rely on to continue its progress, but it happened in the last quarter of the nineteenth century that the social view of crime transformed into a biological individual view, when Lombroso published in 1876 his famous book on the criminal man. 

Lombroso considers crime an individual phenomenon; Accordingly, he is concerned with studying the criminal 6 and measuring his critical characteristics to reveal the link between these features and the crime. Peeping the nose and opening its nostrils, lack of chin hair, lack of sensitivity to pain, distortion of the shape of the ear, thickening of the eyebrow ... etc., and if there are five or more of these stigmas in one person, it is verified that it is of the criminal type, and from three to five it is of the style The deficient criminal, as for the presence of fewer than three stigmas in a person, takes him out of the circle of criminals.

These stigmas are not the cause of the criminal tendency, rather they are merely evidence of either the recurrence of the owner to the stage of barbarism or his corruption and dissolution, and that he is of an epileptoid type, and the criminal - under his corrupt nature - is unable to suppress his criminal tendency unless the conditions of his life are exceptionally good To prevent the growth and revitalization of criminal tendency, although Lombroso considers genetic decay and regression to the stage of barbarism among the basic factors of criminality.

 However, we must prove fair to him that he reintroduced in his later research to the saying that the effect of genetics may be easy for some criminals, while Socio-economic factors have the greatest impact on defining criminality, just as Lambroso is not limited to the physical aspect of his study of the criminal, but rather refers in the third part of his book to the psychology of the criminal, but his treatment of this topic was quick and fleeting not without much confusion and contradiction, so he decides once The criminal is courageous and courageous, and again he is a cowardly and fearless, and the criminal is described in general as insensitive, capricious, arrogant, tough-hearted, decadent, introduced to excessively drinking alcohol, gambling, and committing immorality.

The fundamental deficiency that distorts the views of Lambrzo and destroys their scientific value is that he did not study a comparison between criminals and non-criminals in determining the physical characteristics of the criminal, and before mentioning experimental research that undermined the foundations of the Ambrosian theory, it is worth pointing out the attempt made by the French physician Prosper Despite laid the foundation for criminal psychology in the second and third parts of his book “Natural Psychology” in 1868 CE, and his special study of the mentality of criminals in 1872 CE. 

Despite concludes that the criminal is not physically or mentally ill, except in a few cases. Indeed, the criminal appears to him something From the psychological anomaly, however, this anomaly does not affect the mental and intellectual aspect, but rather the dispositional and sentimental aspect, especially the ethical inclinations.

 However, these deviations do not constitute, in the opinion of Despain, a mental anomaly in particular, as they also encounter good people with good behavior. However, these persons enjoy With the power to self-control and suppress.

As for the true anomaly that distinguishes the criminal, it is in his moral formation, as he is incapable of realizing his true interest, incapable of sympathy with others, and of understanding the meaning of duty and responsibility, he is blind, lacks the sense of remorse and is unable to report on his previous experiences, this description reminds us of what came in the article Dr. Sabri Gerges on the psychological crime published in the Journal of Psychology (October 1948 AD). 

However, Despain argues for the necessity of reforming, correcting, and re-educating the criminal, but if it is not the seriousness of upbringing must be isolated to avoid his evil without punishing him, as the effect of punishment is very small in terms of reform.

Despain did not conclusively present these results, as he feels his research is lacking and invites others to continue research in the direction that he drew, but unfortunately no one tried until the beginning of this century to take his views and reconsider them, as we have seen how interest with Lombroso and his students shifted to studying the physical aspect in particular. And considering the criminal as a corrupt and decadent person.

But Lambroso's views did not last long in the face of the results of the statistical observations made by Dr. Göring on three thousand prison inmates in England,  and Göring states that there is absolutely nothing that can be considered a physical model for the criminal, and that the statistical results of the measurements made on criminals It does not differ from it in non-criminals, and that the difference in skull measurements between Cambridge students and Oxford students is not different from the difference between criminals and non-criminals.

There are other attempts to return criminality to one basic factor, some of them stress the importance of the imbalance in the endocrine system - that is, the hormonal system -, and the owners of this opinion are the ones who decide that the hormonal system in the particle is what determines the personality traits and what one will take next in terms of Different social situations, and others consider mental weakness the main reason for crime,  and that the ability to assess the consequences of actions alone is capable of suppressing the criminal tendency, and supporters of this opinion are ignorant of the effect of psychological-emotional factors in directing thinking in distorting it, as explained by the school of psychoanalysis, and from On the other hand, we see some scholars neglecting genetic factors and mountainous factors almost completely neglecting, and blaming criminality on the disturbance of family ties or the influence of neighborhood and mixing and what this effect is based on in terms of simulation and sympathy, or the influence of economic factors, especially poverty, or the weakness of religious belief ... etc.

Michael and Adler, in their book on crime, law, and sociology 9 in Chapter Five on the Causes of Crime (pp. 88-169) reviewed more than a hundred researches carried out by an individual or joint scientists in committees and social scientific institutions to examine the factors leading to crime, and they concluded that This research does not allow for an explicit and adequate answer to any of the following questions:

Can criminals be distinguished from non-criminals by some combination of factors? In the case of the affirmative: What are these factors? Can we distinguish between two different models of criminals? What are the factors of discrimination? Is it possible to isolate a type of criminal that differs from non-criminals?

- in addition to its inability to determine the causes of the crime comprehensively and accurately

- has also failed to provide us with valid scientific results in the special circle that each research deals with separately;

 This is due to the methodological and statistical errors that most of these scientists did not pay attention to, as the accuracy of statistical operations does not substitute for the value of the approach that must be followed in observation and experimentation, nor does it substitute for the validity of the data that are to be treated by statistical mathematical methods.

There is not yet a single comprehensive theory to explain criminality, and that the researcher must adhere to an appropriate approach to the complexity of the phenomenon of criminality, and it is no less complex than any other phenomenon of normal or abnormal behavior. Criminality through the interaction of several factors sees themselves compelled to adopt an integrative approach, which considers every behavioral manifestation as an inevitable result of the interaction of biological, psychological, and social factors dynamically and steadily.

These scholars view the personality as a field of conflict with several internal factors such as tendencies, desires and emotions, and that this field is closely related to the field of the social and cultural environment, which in turn is an arena for the struggle of several forces that differ in their content and direction, and each of these individual and social factors participates in determining behavior in This moment or that, in this situation or in other situations, and each factor has a likely or probable effect in determining behavior, whether it is behavior consistent with moral and social ideals or behavior contrary to these ideals, according to each special situation and according to the history of each person and the circumstances of his formation and education.

The weighting effect of this factor alone, or for a group of some factors not others, bearing in mind that the result obtained from the weighting of some group of factors over others in determining the behavioral appearance is functionally and dynamically related to the weakness of other factors in their weighting effect in determining this particular behavioral appearance Based on this integrative trend in research
- which is the only direction that takes into account the complexity of the human behavioral phenomenon
 - it becomes clear to us what we have previously decided that the explanation for tuberculosis Your criminal behavior does not differ in its methodology nor in determining its factors from the interpretation of any behavioral phenomenon, whether we judge it from an ethical and social point of view good or evil.

Yes, the application of the integrative approach requires that it be preceded by description, analysis, and classification to identify all the factors that must be entered into our comprehensive interpretation, but the complementary spirit must be dominant, so that the research does not stop at the stage of description, analysis, and classification, but goes beyond it to reconstruct the phenomenon
- which is the subject of the research - based on scientific explanation, since while the old research was concerned with criminality at all, it came to view criminals and delinquents as real facts living in a realistic environment with their characteristics, and this new trend has led to an attempt to classify criminals rather than classify crimes. Because crime does not acquire all its psychological and social significance unless it is functionally linked to the psyche of the criminal, and the comprehensive classification of criminals paves the way for us to scientific explanation. This is because classification is at once a consequence of earlier explanatory attempts and targeting later explanations is more comprehensive and in-depth than the first.

Punishment and correction:

If the matter is in the interpretation of the crime as we have seen, then it follows that the subsidiary or partial remedies are not feasible and that a comprehensive reform program must be put in place, and in the field of treatment as well, the importance of the integrative approach was not realized until after many attempts that began since the beginning of the century Nineteenth, however, the complementary view of prevention and treatment has not yet won the support and support that the study of the causes of crime has gained, so some economists argue that the costs of reform - if comprehensive reform is true to be achieved will far exceed the state's expenses in suppressing crime and preventing Society and the loss and waste of material and intangible wealth that befalls society as a result of criminal attacks as if the evil of crime is less severe than the evil of reform in the eyes of economists!

 We do not claim that crime can be eradicated from its roots, for crime is evidence of the deficiency of human society, and it is also evidence of human deficiency in terms of a social factor, as it is not possible to achieve a complete reconciliation between the set of human motives and what is required by the optimal social system, so perfection is not The share of mankind, just as it is not possible to achieve perfection in human society, but wisdom dictates that we seek perfection as far as we can, and at the same time recognize the limits of human powers.

Every act contrary to the law or harmful to the interests of the group entails a reaction from the authority or the group, and the first reaction is to defend the sanctity of the law and the interest of the group by incapable of the sinner from returning to his sin, but the position of the victim is not limited to such a negative position - that is, the position of defense - Rather, it transcends it to a positive attitude, which is satisfying the desire for revenge and healing;

 For this reason, the idea of punishment always includes in the mind of the victim the element of torture and harm to the perpetrator, not just averting his evil by imprisoning him and isolating him from society.

 Moreover, the humiliating and painful punishment is not only intended to punish the perpetrator but rather to deter others, and the current legal situations support this trend of thinking to a large extent It also supports the opinion that the best way to reduce the proportion of crimes is to tighten the punishment and expedite its implementation and work to ensure that a criminal does not escape the hand of justice.

Supporters of the punishment argue that the painful deterrent punishment has a correctional value and that the criminal after serving the first sentence will refrain from recidivism for fear of the punishment and to flee from its pain, and that residing in custody allows him to break his bad habits, and it also makes him realize the futility of the crime, In the end, it is said, finally, in defending the value of punishment from a social point of view, that it satisfies public opinion, restores reassurance to souls, strengthens collective solidarity and develops a feeling of respect for morals and laws.

However, experience, statistics, and tracking the behavior of criminals after their release from prison did not soon show the deficiencies of the punishment system, but rather its harm in the majority of cases, and it can be said first: 

The psychological basis on which the painful and humiliating punishment system is based is incomplete. 

Because the behavior of the individual is not always subject - and directly - to the principle of pleasure and pain, just as the behavior of an animal or a young child is subject to it, and the result of pain is not always a fear of it, and fear of pain does not always lead to avoiding evil and doing good, it was finally agreed that the restorative value of fear It is very small and has a negative value, while reform must be based on positive foundations. Fear of pain may increase the criminal's persistence in his criminality and push him to fraud to flee by various means from justice, and it is known that criminal professionals, especially in the fields of commercial and political business 

- they are Among the most dangerous criminals to the social system 

- they master the means of manipulation and deception to avoid conviction, and the percentage of those arrested among these professionals is much less than the percentage of those arrested who are taking the path of crime for the first time under the influence of violent emotional factors.

This is in addition to the effect of punishment on the psyche of the criminal, especially the occasional offender. Punishment isolates the perpetrator and makes him an enemy of society and proves in him this trait, which soon becomes a social stigma that haunts him throughout his life, and sometimes creates an obstacle to gain the appreciation of others even if he exerts his utmost effort in reforming himself And correct his behavior.

Finally, it must be noted that imposing a penalty that appears to end the problem does not end it. Because it is a negative act that prevents thinking about the means of reform and prevention, and reform can only be done with a positive action that requires scientific research on the factors that led to the spread of criminality, thus paving the way to find means of prevention by controlling and directing social conditions.
Whatever the matter of the discussion that takes place between the proponents of the painful punishment and its enemies, in practice there has occurred a significant change in the position of the judges towards the criminal, so that the idea of treatment and reform often softens the severity of the punishment, and this shift is very clear in the juvenile courts, while it was The judiciary in the past estimated punishment according to the severity of the sin. 

Today it takes into account the conditions of the ward and uses the services of the psychiatrist and psychologist and the social visitor in clarifying the psychological and social conditions of the delinquent and tracing his life since childhood, to reveal the best means to save the delinquent and turn him into a useful citizen, and this scientific and humanitarian method has led together In the treatment of delinquents, the results are truly encouraging, as, for example, in the Institutes of Borstel in England.

With the advancement of social research and by convincing the public of the necessity of relying on the field of crime control on scientific research and not on the measures that emotions suggest, the system used in the treatment of juvenile delinquents will include the treatment of adult criminals themselves, and the last step that must be achieved is for treatment to go beyond individual criminals to include in his circle the cultural and social attitudes surrounding criminals, then the project to combat crime in a positive way will become an integral part of the integrated social reform project.