The Journey of Criminal Psychology...

Criminal psychology deals with the thought process, intentions and actions of criminals and suspects. The establishment of criminal psychology goes back to the 19th century and so it is still at the developing stage in a lot of countries including India. In the beginning, the experiments in this field were only related to eyewitness testimony. It was later in 1964, when Hans J. Eysenck published a book on crime and personality which was the first ever book to include the application of psychology in order to understand crimes and the behaviour of criminals. This led to the development of criminal psychology. There were A lot of people who contributed to the establishment of this field.

James McKeen Cattell conducted his experiments in the area of Eyewitness testimony. He instructed his subjects to describe the day-to-day events that they witnessed in their life. It was  observed that they could not recall all the events which they came across during their entire day and so the information put forward during the experiment was incorrect. But this experiment caused a number of other psychologists to start researching on eye-witness testimony.

Alfred Binet’s experiments on children suggested that when they were asked to note down what they saw,  they gave more accurate answers. While, when children were asked to answer the questions about what they saw, the answers were unclear. This experiment concluded that free recall is the best method of testimony.

Hugo Munsterberg was a German psychologist who published a book about how psychology could be utilised in the field of law. He is also considered as the father of criminal psychology, and he put light on the fact that psychology can help with issues relating to eyewitness testimony and false confessions and also contribute to preventing crimes.

William Stern conducted experiments on the emotional aspect of the eyewitnesses and how it affects their testimony. Schrenck Notzing introduced ‘retroactive memory falsification’ which indicated that the information provided by media and other sources hampers the memory of the witness in regards to the event.  

Albert Bandura’s social learning theory also helps to understand the basis of an individual’s behaviour. His Bobo Doll Experiment stated how a person learns any behaviour from his environment. This theory also helps us understand the behaviour of criminals. 

Today, the world has a lot of established criminal psychologists like David Wilson and Valerie Jenness. Their research includes  studies on hate crimes, prostitution and violence in prisons. They have also published books  about the British prison system and serial murders.  

In India, criminal psychology is slowly making its own place. Calcutta university was the first one to establish an experimental psychology group in India in 1916. It started under the guidance of Prof. Narendra Nath Sen Gupta who was trained under Prof Hugo Munsterberg.  Later in 1972, Delhi’s Lok Nayak Jayaprakash National Criminological and Forensic Science Institute was developed. By now there are various colleges in India that have been teaching criminal psychology. 

An established criminal psychologist in India is Anuja Kapoor. Her work has created an impact on a lot of people. She is currently the founder of an NGO called, “NIRBHAYA EK SHAKTI.” This NGO provides help to people irrespective of their age and cast. They help people through counselling, legal aid and even with rehabilitation. She graduated from Delhi University with a Bachelor’s Degree in Psychology. Further, her interest in criminal psychology increased and she pursued her master’s degree in it. She did not intend to stop here. She also got into another course of Forensic Science from the Department of Anthropology, Faculty of Science and University of Delhi under the able guidance of Dr. Surinder Nath. 

Recently she also filed a Criminal Writ Petition in Bombay High Court as a Petitioner in the model and minor cigarette burn case where  a few influential people were involved. Justice Ranjit Moore came forward and appreciated her for taking on this case and bringing it to the notice of court without any personal benefits in it.  As an individual also she filed against the Election Commission, an RTI because the legal rights of the youth were violated by the government and the youth was deprived of their Right to Vote. She has also been a vice president of NGO “Cures”.

Even though criminal psychology has been developing in the world today, a lot of people are still unaware about how criminal psychology and forensic psychology are different. They consider both of these fields to be similar. Criminal Psychologists are required in the situations where crime takes place. They help in understanding the motive of the criminal whereas Forensic Psychologists are not directly involved  at the crime scenes. They step in to prevent crime by  formulating effective strategies and rehabilitation systems.

Research says that the crime rate during covid had been considerably low but as soon as the lockdown was lifted, crime rates started increasing. The pandemic has affected people financially and led to an increase in poverty which in turn has affected the crime rate. According to the National Crime Records Bureau, the crimes in India have increased by 28%. Due to this increasing crime rate, the need of criminal psychologists has also increased. 

REFERENCES

Banerjee, S. (2021, October 4). Criminal psychology: an important area in the field of criminology. iPleaders. https://blog.ipleaders.in/criminal-psychology-an-important-area-in-the-field-of-criminology/

Optimist, T. (2019, March 9). Anuja Kapur - An outstanding exponent of Criminal Psychology in India. The Optimist. https://theoptimist.news/anuja-kapur-an-outstanding-exponent-of-criminal-psychology-in-india/

Open Universities Australia. (2022, February 18). Criminal psychology vs forensic psychology. https://www.open.edu.au/advice/insights/criminal-psychology-vs-forensic-psychology

AUTHOR’S NOTE 

Hrishika Jain is studying in first year, BSc Applied Psychology. She likes reading and has been learning contemporary dance for a while now. She is an introvert but at the same time an open book with the people she has known for a long time. She has been writing poems and small write-ups for the past three years and it has been her comfort zone to pen down whatever it is that she feels.