Psychopathology, delinquency and judicial imputability
Mental illnesses have been, over the years, an associated factor in the vast majority of crimes. However, this thinking is equivocal in many ways. From the outset, we must bear in mind that not every criminal or criminal suffers from a mental disorder, but also, It is worth emphasizing that not every mentally ill person commits criminal acts , even though there is a clinical diagnosis, there must be a causal relationship with the act.
As Vicente Garrido Genovés, a prominent Spanish criminologist, rightly mentioned, "That someone defies the essential principles that regulate our social life, forged over centuries, is not proof or sufficient reason to think that he is a madman or a degenerated patient". The issue of criminal responsibility and imputability, regarding who commits a crime with mental illness, has been a subject of constant debate and analysis for decades.
Today, in this article, We review the concepts of psychopathology and inimputability, we also mention some of the mental affectations of higher criminogenic incidence .
Psychopathology: definition
The health encyclopedia defines psychopathology as "Study of the causes, symptoms, evolution and treatment of mental disorders. In a broad sense, psychopathology also integrates knowledge about personality, pathological behavior, family structure and social environment ".
It is mainly psychiatrists and psychologists who are interested in this area, as they collaborate constantly with regard to treatment and research about the origin of clinical pictures, as well as their manifestation and development. While psychiatry is concerned with identifying signs and symptoms that come to be configured as syndromes, diseases or disorders and their respective treatments, psychology applies the knowledge of mental processes, learning and social context to the understanding of the various mental pathologies , from which other disciplines are derived, for example psychotherapy.
Understanding psychopathology, understanding the criminal
We know that the main sciences interested in this area of study are psychiatry and psychology. However, disciplines that are involved with psychopathology are different to try to explain the complexity of human behavior; among them criminology, whose main objectives are: find the reason for the various antisocial behaviors, understand their etiology and prevent its continuity .
Although from ancient times it was understood that social deviance could sometimes only be explained by individual internal phenomena such as emotions, moods and sometimes subsequent to a disease, it was until just two centuries ago, by the hand of lawyers like Lombroso and Garofalo (parents of criminology) that was introduced to criminal law. The idea that the delinquent had no free will, an axiom of the positivist school of law, argued that most crimes were caused by a series of organic anomalies, including mental illness.
Thus, over the years and with the advancement of science and technology, it has been discovered little by little that phenomena such as criminal behavior have their etiology in the most diverse manifestations of mental pathologies , sometimes as a result of some neurological damage, in other occasions, product of genetic inheritance. In this way, they have managed to understand some of the most atrocious crimes perpetrated thanks to psychopathology.
Inimputability
One of the main reasons why psychopathology is interfered with in the forensic field is to help clarify concepts such as criminal responsibility (pay criminally for the crime committed) and unimputability (indicate that the person can not be held responsible for what is criminally accused).
Psychopathology can help us to clarify, sometimes, if someone who has perpetrated a crime performed the act in full use of their mental faculties, or if on the contrary the fact was the result of their state of mental derangement (the result of a syndrome or mental disorder, for example) and, therefore, can not be imposed a penalty.
It will be joint work of psychiatry, forensic psychology and criminology to use the knowledge provided by psychopathology to clarify whether a delinquent with a mental pathology committed his antisocial behavior with intention, capacity for discernment and freedom.
Some psychopathologies with higher incidence in crimes
Below we mention only some of the mental disturbances with the highest criminogenic incidence, we clarify that having this affectation does not always lead to criminal behavior.
- Paranoid schizophrenia (and other psychoses): mental illnesses characterized by presenting clinical pictures where the sense of reality, objectivity and logic are lost , the personality is disorganized and there are hallucinations and delusions. If it is also about paranoid schizophrenia, usually those who suffer from it have persecutory hobbies and suspicion about any subject, whether known or not. Sometimes these hobbies in which the subject feels persecuted in combination with his loss of contact with reality leads to various antisocial behaviors. An example is the famous case of The Vampire Of Sacramento who committed a series of atrocious murders after being diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia.
- Antisocial personality disorder: it is estimated that Between 25% and 50% of inmates in prisons suffer from this disorder . They are people characterized by a general failure to adapt to social norms and rules, dishonesty, mythomania, irritability, aggression and lack of remorse, among other characteristics. It commonly refers to this disorder as psychopathy. We reserve the right to list all possible crimes that the antisocial subject may carry out. On the question of its imputability, the most diverse debates are still generated on whether the psychopath in question is able or not to discern between good and evil.
- Bipolar personality disorder: is a mood disorder characterized by an increase and decrease in the activity expressed in the mental state that prevails and that is characterized by the presence of one or more abnormally high episodes of energy and mood that fluctuate between states of euphoria and depressive episodes; so that the sufferer oscillates between the phases of mania (excitement, delusions of greatness) and depressive phases. During the manic phase, the subject can experience sudden episodes of impulsiveness and aggressiveness that can sometimes manifest in criminal behavior. In contrast to the depressive phase in which the decrease of neurotransmitters such as serotonin and dopamine can cause the subject to attempt against his own life.
- Borderline personality disorder: also known as upset edge or disorder borderline personality. The DSM-IV defines it as "A personality disorder characterized primarily by emotional instability, extremely polarized and dichotomous thinking and chaotic interpersonal relationships". It is often said that those who suffer from this disorder are at the border between neurosis and psychosis, and even many authors describe the symptoms of this disorder as "pseudopsychotic". The offense can sometimes arise when there are very brief psychotic episodes, however, usually these subjects are able to understand the illicit nature of their acts .
- Disorders of impulse control : group of disorders characterized by a deficient or null control over their impulses that leads them to perform almost uncontrollable actions, an increase in emotional tension before committing an act, pleasure in committing the action and a feeling after the act of repentance or guilt . The ones mentioned here are those most commonly related to criminal behavior. TO) Intermittent explosive disorder: characterized by extreme expressions of anger, often to the point of uncontrolled rage, which are disproportionate to the circumstances in which they occur, which can lead to crimes, particularly directed against property and physical integrity. B) Pyromania: disorder in which the person feels driven to see and produce fire, which can sometimes end in catastrophes that can include the lives of many people. C) Kleptomania: irresistible impulse for the theft of various objects, regardless of whether or not they are of value. The kleptomaniac does not seek to profit from theft, only feels pleasure to do so.
Bibliographic references:
- Mendoza Beivide, A.P. (2012). Psychiatry for criminologists and criminology for psychiatrists. Mexico. Editorial Trillas.
- Núñez Gaitán, M.C .; López Miguel, J.L. (2009). Psychopathology and delinquency: Implications in the concept of culpability. Electronic Journal of Criminal Science and Criminology (online). 2009, no. 11-r2, p. r2: 1 -r2: 7. Available on the Internet: //criminet.ugr.es/recpc/11/recpc11-r2.pdf
