Criminal Psychology

Contents: Preface. 1. Introduction. 2. The control of crime. 3. Theories of criminal psychology. 4. Social psychology of crime. 5. Physical and biological factors and crime. 6. Criminal psychology of the stranger. 7. Feminist perspectives on criminal psychology. 8. Destructive organisational psychology. 9. Media and criminal psychology. Index.

"Psychology is the study of individual characteristics or qualities such as personality, reasoning, thought, intelligence, learning, perception, imagination, memory and creativity. There are two groups of theories or schools of thought. These are cognitive and behavioural there are psychologists who place weight on a triological link. Conceptually it would be better to begin testing at a very young age and follow the children through to adulthood. Ideally the tests should cover not only personality and official criminality but also self reported criminality. The researcher would then be better able to assess whether their personalities were inherent, learnt from normal socialisation or were the result of a brush with the criminal justice system. The proposed methods of assessment might also show whether these personality types actually commit more crime or whether they are just more likely to be caught. There would still be problems, the perceived personality traits may be the result of earlier conflict with figures of authority such as teachers." (jacket)