UNIT 4 INTRODUCTION TO CRIMINAL Introduction to

Criminal
PSYCHOLOGY1 Psychology

Structure
4.0 Objectives
4.1 Introduction
4.2 Nature and Scope of Criminal Psychology
4.2.1 Role and Functions of a Criminal Psychologist
4.2.2 Criminal Psychology and Related Disciplines
4.3 Difference between Forensic and Criminal Psychology
4.4 Let Us Sum Up
4.5 References
4.6 Key Word
4.7 Answers to Check Your Progress
4.8 Unit End Questions

4.0 OBJECTIVES
After reading this unit, you will be able to,

• discuss the nature and scope of criminal psychology;

• describe the and roles and functions of a criminal psychologist; and
• differentiate between forensic and criminal psychology.

4.1 INTRODUCTION
Dr. Mahima was an academic counsellor at one of the IGNOU study centres
in Delhi. And today she had invited her friend Dr. Anjali, who was a forensic
psychologist, to interact with the learners of BAPCH. Let us look at their
conversation.
Dr. Mahima: Hello learners
Learners (in unison): Hello Maam.
Dr. Mahima: Well, it gives me a great pleasure to introduce you to the
speaker for today Dr. Anjali, who is a forensic psychologist and today she
will speak on criminal psychology. I welcome Dr. Anjali and request her to
please address our learners.
Dr. Anjali: So dear learners, you are well aware of what is forensic
psychology, right?
Learners: Yes Maam.

1
Prof. Vimala Veeraraghavan, Former Emeritus Professor, Discipline of Psychology,SOSS
IGNOU, Delhi
57
Criminal Psychology Dr. Anjali: So can any one tell me what is forensic psychology?
Salman: Maam, we can describe forensic psychology as application of
principles of psychology to legal system.
Dr. Anjali: Thats right. And forensic psychologists advices judges, lawyers
and other persons in legal system.
Sonia (Learner): Yes Maam, we read about the roles and functions of a
forensic psychologist in our course material of BPCE142.
Dr. Anjali (smiling): I am happy that I am addressing a well read audience.
Did you read about criminal psychology as well?
Navjyot (Learner): Maam criminal psychology is one of the sub-specialities
forensic psychology.
Sofia (Learner): But Maam, what exactly is criminal psychology?
Dr. Anjali: Well, as one of you mentioned criminal psychology is one of the
sub- specialities under forensic psychology, which is a broader field and it
can be described as applications of principles of psychology to understand a
crime, the criminal and to an extent the victim as well as the entire situation
that led to the criminal behavior.
Kiran (Learner):But Maam, how it is different from forensic psychology?
Dr. Anjali: As we can see from the definition of forensic psychology, the
focus is on the legal system, whereas, in criminal psychology the focus is on
understanding the crime and criminal behaviour.
…….. And Dr. Anjali continues with her talk on criminal psychology.
From the above conversation, you must have developed some idea about
criminal psychology. Let us discuss further on this topic.
In the very first block of this course, we discussed about forensic psychology.
Yet another field that is relevant in this context is that of criminal
psychology. In the present unit, we will be dealing with criminal psychology
from various perspectives. We will present definitions related to criminal
psychology, what it is and look at criminal psychology from a historical
perspective. We will discuss the nature and scope of criminal psychology and
discuss the relationship between criminal psychology and other related
disciplines. We will present the functions and roles of criminal psychologist.

4.2 NATURE AND SCOPE OF CRIMINAL

PSYCHOLOGY
The word “criminal” originates from the French word “criminel” meaning
criminal, despicable etc. and it directly rises from the Latin word “criminalis”
pertaining to crime. The word “psychology” is a combination of two words,
viz., ‘psyche’ and ‘logos’, that is, “psyche” means 'mind' and ‘logos’ means
‘the study of’. Thus, ‘psychology’ means the study of the mind and ‘criminal
psychology’ means the study of the criminal mind. This study of the mind of
the criminals goes beyond studying the committing of a crime by an
individual, that is, this study includes also the reactions after the crime, the
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escape of the person who commits the crime and his/her behaviours in the Introduction to
Criminal
court etc. Psychology

Criminal psychology can be described as a branch of applied psychology that

focuses on determination of the criminal’s reasons for committing a crime.It
can also be described as a study of thoughts, intensions, reactions and wills
of a criminal so as to ascertain why the crime was committed. The legal
dictionary defines criminal psychology as “a study of will, intention,
thoughts, feelings and reactions of criminals and those who engage in
criminal behaviour”.
Criminal psychology to a greater extent derives its scientific methods and
rigours from that anthropology. However, it uses psychological principles,
techniques and knowledge in the process of investigation so that both crime
and the criminal behaviours are understood relatively in greater depth.
Criminal psychology thus helps the police and other investigating agencies
by applying psychological principles in understanding a crime, the criminal
and to an extent the victim as well as the entire situation that led to the
criminal behavior. In the investigation, the focus is more often on the
criminal, that is, the offenders.
Historically, explanations for crime as to why it occurs and explanations for
criminal behaviours can be obtained somewhere in the early 20th century
when psychologists offered psychological explanations for criminal
behaviours and also speculated about the various causes that could be related
to crime and criminal and deviant behaviours. In the beginning criminal
psychology was more theoretical in nature though in later years it became
more clinical with attempts made to measure the many personality
characteristics and the mental capacities of the offenders. As far as 1919,
Harry H Goddard, a distinguished psychologist who studied causation of
crime, stated that the greatest single cause of delinquency and crime is the
low-grade mentality. Similar views had been expressed by William Healy,
Charles Goring and Lombroso, who stated that a person is born with criminal
traits, and in many cases, defective intelligence was one of the important
constitutional factors in the causation of crime. This kind of thinking led to
theories such as the ones given below:
i) The mental defective, that is, a type of “born criminal”.
ii) Feeble-mindedness is a heredity unit character following Mendel’s Law.
iii) The feeble-minded characteristically commit crimes in the absence of
inhibiting social factors and they lack the capacity to grasp what is right
and what is wrong.
iv) The feeble-minded cannot foresee the consequences of their actions and
thus indulge in crimes getting apprehended and also incarcerated
depending on the severity of the crime committed.
v) The feeble-minded are suggestible and respond to criminal leadership of
brighter individuals.
vi) If reared in families and neighbourhoods where they are constantly
getting associated with delinquents as examples, feeble minded persons
also follow them and take to delinquency.” 59
Criminal Psychology Many explanations in the form of biological, social and familial, have thus
been advanced as contributing to criminal behavior.
Until 1930’s or thereabout, experts continued to hold the view that mental
deficiency, delinquency and dependency were related phenomena.
Psychologists such as Herbert Goddard pointed out repeatedly that most
juvenile and adult offenders were “mentally deficient”, which led to the
thinking that crime and criminal behavior were due to mental deficiency or
intellectual limitation. Persons with such intellectual limitation, were
considered morally less capable in adapting themselves to the requirements
of the society, and thus tend to make use of primitive methods, such as
indulging in crimes, to meet their needs. These explanations and conclusions
however did not get the support in the present day context, as psychologists
and social scientists found that many social and economic factors, cultural
conditions, and socialisation processes do play very important role in crime
and criminal behavior.
In the 1940’s an important technique to identify criminals emerged, that is,
criminal profiling. This was an important development that took place in
criminal psychology, and is attributed to Walter C. Langer a well known
psychiatrist who was asked to draw up a profile of Adolf Hitler and he did
show Hitler as being both a neurotic and a schizophrenic. Following all
these developments, came forensic psychology which had its origin in the
works of Hugo Munsterberg, followed by McKeen Cattell who studied the
psychology of testimony.
As of today when one considers the status of criminal psychology, one needs
to recognise that crime has become a perpetual element of the society and
hence it is a big challenge to prevent crime and criminals in the society.
Laws alone cannot deter crimes from occurring. It is therefore necessary to
understand all aspects of crime and criminals, which criminal psychology has
as its main aim. Some of the important queries that arise in this regard
include: “How does a criminal’s mind work? and “what is the cause behind
the crime?” “Why do crimes happen”? These queries could be answered by
both criminology and criminal psychology, as criminology deals with the
various factors in the society and criminal psychology deals with thoughts
and behaviours of criminals and puts forward theories related to crime and
criminal behavior.
As is well known, one of the important challenges for any society is to
prevent crimes that destroy the peace of people. It is also well known that
Law or punishment alone cannot help prevent or reduce crime in the society.
To prevent crime and criminals, it is important to have a thorough knowledge
of the causes that lead to crime and criminality. Also it is important to
understand how a criminal mind works so that one could try and change the
mental framework or take such measures that could offset the consequences
of the action by criminal mind. Criminals are of two types, viz., psychopaths
and sociopaths, with the former referring to high criminal tendencies and the
latter referring to emotionally imbalanced persons. In addition these persons
also experience economic, social and family problems. Instead of using
lawful and appropriate behaviours to solve the problems, they resort to
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deviant and criminal behaviours to overcome the problem. To deal with all Introduction to
Criminal
the concerned issues, knowledge of both criminology and psychology is Psychology
important. Crime is an act forbidden by law, and requires an action by a
human to commit the crime (Actus Reus) and this human (person) concerned
must also have an intention to commit the crime (Mens Rea). Such crimes
violate the rights of the people and affects the society creating a sense of
distrust and fear among people and in the environment. Hence, to understand
crime, many aspects have to be considered, for which disciplines such as
psychology, sociology, criminology, criminal psychology etc are required
which can provide understanding of the criminal behaviours in depth. In this
context, taking up criminal psychology, which is, as pointed out earlier, a
branch of applied psychology, applies knowledge and principles of
psychology to understanding crime and criminal behaviour in terms of why,
how and where it takes place and whether such crimes could be prevented,
reduced and eliminated from the society. Despite efforts to define criminal
psychology, there is until now no specific definition except one , that is,
criminal psychology is a branch of applied psychology which is concerned
with the collection, examination and presentation of evidence for judicial
purposes (Gudjonsson and Haward, 1998).
To elaborate on the scope of criminal psychology. It involves evaluation that
is carried out with the help of psychological tests and interview if the person
accused of a crime (criminal) is capable of standing the trial in a Court of
Law, in terms of his mental capacity, understanding and mental state. A
criminal psychologists plays an important role in helping the courts, the
judges and other law enforcement personnel in arriving at a proper decision
regarding the accused such as if he/ she in fact had committed the crime, if
so the motive behind the same as well as other details of the person. Criminal
psychologists are also involved in the evaluation of the eye witnesses in
regard to the credibility, veracity and reliability of their statements about
what they witnessed at the crime scene etc. Often action researches are
conducted in criminal psychology so as to help the judges and the courts to
decide in the most competent and justified manner about a case.
Criminal psychology has actuarial scope too, in that the experts in criminal
psychology use statistics such as probability of a crime taking place at a
certain place or the probability of a criminal striking again or reoffending.
Another important scope is one of advisory wherein the criminal
psychologist gives suggestions and advice to police personnel involved in
investigation. They also help judges to understand the behaviours of an
accused or offender and deliver accurate justice.

4.2.1 Role and Functions of a Criminal Psychologist

One of the important roles of a criminal psychologist is to study the
behaviours and thoughts of criminals. In many ways, criminal psychologist
and forensic psychologist perform almost similar roles and thus quite often
the two terms are interchangeable.
Criminal psychologists study the various causes that lead people to commit
crime. They assess criminals and evaluate them in order to determine
recidivism, that is whether the person concerned will indulge in crime once 61
Criminal Psychology again, and also evaluate as to their behaviours and actions after having
committed the crime.
Criminal psychologists also provide expert testimony in the court. They are
involved in criminal profiling, which as mentioned earlier in the section on
historical perspective, started in the 1940’s with Langer making the first
such profile and that too of Adolf Hitler. Criminal profiling helps the police
and the investigators to identify the criminal concerned and apprehend him/
her .
Criminal psychologists also take up psychological assessment and
counselling people who have committed a crime, so that similar or even
newer crimes may be prevented. They also are involved in studying the
hackers, internet predators and help computer experts in investigating frauds
online.
Criminal psychologists interview people, work out in detail an offender’s life
history and help the law enforcement in both investigating crime and
apprehending the criminal.
Prof. Lionel Haward, who is considered to be the father of criminal
psychology, categorised the functions into the following:
1) Clinical functions: This involves assessing a person to provide a clinical
judgment. For this they use assessment tools, such as personality tests,
psychometric tools, interview etc. and inform the police and the court
whether the individual is capable to stand trial and whether he/ she
suffers from any mental illness that renders him/ her incapable of
understanding what is going on in the court proceedings.
2) Experimental functions: These are research functions, involving tests
of varied types. Using tests and research materials, the criminal
psychologists inform the courts about the credibility and veracity of the
statements given by the defendant, victim and the eye witnesses. For
example, whether the response of the person involves false memory,
whether the eyewitness statements are credible etc.
3) Actuarial functions: Criminal psychologists use statistics to present a
case to the court and to the police. For example, they provide the
occurrence of probability of an event such as murder, rape or burglary
and even may indicate whether the offender will repeat offending after
release from jail etc.
4) Advisory function: The criminal psychologist gives advise to the police
regarding how to proceed with the investigation, and what are all the best
methods to conduct interview with a suspect, and advises the police and
the court how an offender will act after committing an offence.
5) Crime analysis: Taking into consideration the victim’s statement and
report, as well as inferring from the crime scene, the criminal
psychologist analyses the behaviour of the offender in the specific
situation and compares these information and the profile of the offender
across different recorded similar crimes in the database. This analysis
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 helps the police officers and the investigating team to identify the Introduction to
Criminal
criminal and also consider the probabilities of the same person Psychology
committing a crime in a typical geographical location.
Criminal psychologists collect reliable and accurate information through
interviewing offenders and witnesses as well as the victims. They are skilled
in conducting interviews of children, adolescents and adults about the case,
using different approach and extract useful information. Criminal
psychologist also use the worked out offender profile to determine the most
appropriate approach towards solving the crime. The criminal psychologist
not only helps the police to apprehend a criminal, but also helps the
government and its competent organs to take steps to prevent the offenders
from re-committing a crime and getting them rehabilitated back in the
society.
A criminal psychologist performs many roles and functions including
carrying out research , treating the accused or the offender, advising parole
boards, intervening clinically to modify the offender’s behaviour, appear in
court as expert witness, serve and advise in mental health tribunals and use
statistical analysis for offender profiling.

4.2.2 Criminal Psychology and Related Disciplines

Let us now discuss about relationship of criminal psychology with other
disciplines
Criminal psychology and criminology: While criminology studies the
causes of crime, criminal psychology studies thoughts, feelings and
behaviours of criminals. Also, criminology finds out and presents measures
to prevent and control crime in the society based on the study of causes of
crime. Criminal psychology on the other hand focusses on what makes a
person commit the crime and the typical personality that such persons have
and creates a profile of such people so as to even predict the kind of persons
would commit a certain crime etc. While criminology is a multidisciplinary
subject, and its focus is on theories of crime, factors influencing crime,
history of crime, control and prevention of crime etc. the focus of criminal
psychology is to interpret psychological tests administered to criminals and
others and use theories to explain the criminal behaviour.
Criminal psychology and police psychology: As for its relationship to
police psychology, criminal psychology applies psychological knowledge to
police settings and problems. Criminal psychologists are used for evaluating
police applicants, educating and training the police officers, as well as
evaluating police personnel’s job tasks and duties. The criminal
psychologists are also used to assess whether the police applicants for
different police positions are mentally fit and suited for the job assigned to
them, etc.
Police psychology is practice of psychology in police settings. It is a clinical
endeavour , provided by clinical psychologists in assessment and treatment of
prisoners, victims and perpetrators if they suffer from any mental illness.
Police psychologists provide research consultations. They apply
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Criminal Psychology psychological knowledge and principles to the many problems related to
police and the many police settings. Police psychology is involved in
recruitment and selection of police personnel, their placement as well as
training. They evaluate the job tasks and duties of police personnel to ensure
efficiency and effectiveness. They also evaluate the psychological fitness of
the police applicants. They also screen out applicants who manifest
psychopathology and those who are not fit to be in the police employment.
Using psychological tests such as personality tests, situational and projective
tests, role play etc. they select persons who show ideal police characteristics.
Criminal psychology and legal psychology: Psychology applied to the legal
system is called legal psychology. It studies varied aspects of the legal
system, and uses psychology to understand, evaluate, and question the
suspects. It also evaluates jury candidates, (in countries which have the jury
system)as well as those who investigate crimes and crime scenes, forensic
investigation and other legally-related situations. Legal psychology is part of
applied psychology and differentiated from criminal psychology. Both these
disciplines differ from each other though both study criminals with different
focus. Legal psychology also deal with the improving the legal system
through research etc. While legal psychology uses cognitive and social
principles in dealing with the legal system, criminal psychology uses
psychological principles and techniques to deal with behaviours of
individuals especially those of criminals. Legal psychology can be seen in
advisory roles, academics and research in legal matters. The legal
psychologists are involved in trial consulting, policy and guidance in legal
aspects based on empirical research, scientific backups and statistics. Legal
psychology is used in testifying eye witnesses.
Criminal psychology and investigative psychology: Investigative
psychology works with police to assist them in finding out from analysing
the crime scene, what type of crime has been committed and what type of
criminal is the offender who has committed the crime. It is concerned with
all types of criminality dealt with by the police including arson, burglary,
murder as well as terrorism. Investigative psychology is a relatively a newer
discipline and is a part of applied psychology. It focusses on understanding
and conducts profiling of criminals. This branch helps in providing assistance
in investigating a crime, and presents important evidences which are
presented in a court of law during trial. The main objective of this branch of
psychology is to assist in solving crimes.
Investigative psychology should not be confused with forensic psychology.
It mainly handles criminal profiling, which is a tool that helps the police and
other law enforcement personnel to profile the offenders and predict criminal
behaviour. Investigative psychology examines and analyses criminal styles
and patterns to arrive at the criminal’s thinking and other personality
characteristic traits. In addition investigative psychology also handles
interviews with the victims of crime, comprehensively analyses the legal and
investigative processes and decisions. It uses various aspects of psychology
in all areas of both criminal and civil investigations.

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Criminal psychology and clinical psychology: Clinical psychology deals Introduction to
Criminal
with assessment, diagnosis and treatment of behavior and emotional Psychology
problems in a broad spectrum of people. In clinical psychology, persons with
mental health problems are tested, the test results are interpreted, diagnosis of
the problems are arrived at and plans for treating the problems are worked
out in detail and administered to patients to render the persons asymptomatic.
Criminal psychology too requires knowledge and training in clinical
psychology so as to administer the required tests, interpret the same and
arrive at the understanding of the crime that has been committed and also of
the individual who has committed the crime. Criminal psychology thus uses
clinical psychology and psychological knowledge in dealing with the legal
system and issues related to crime and criminals. While a clinical
psychologist may be an advocate for his/her clients/patients, a forensic
psychologist/criminal psychologist works generally for an attorney, judge
and any other legal authority. While forensic psychology and criminal
psychology requires a strong clinical psychology knowledge and discipline,
clinical psychology does not require background in forensic psychology.

Check Your Progress I

1) List the roles and functions of a criminal psychologist.
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4.3 DIFFERENCE BETWEEN FORENSIC AND

CRIMINAL PSYCHOLOGY
In the very first unit of this course, we discussed about forensic psychology.
In this section of the unit, we will explain the difference between forensic and
criminal psychology.
The terms forensic psychology and criminal psychology are often used
interchangeably. Though, there are differences between the both, as such
criminal psychology can be termed as one of the sub-specialities under
forensic psychology (as was mentioned in unit 1).
Forensic psychology deals with work related to prisons, victims of crime,
witnesses to the crime, and handles counselling of ‘at-risk’ youths. Forensic
psychology also assists lawyers and advocates, as well as the law
enforcement in regard criminal investigation. Forensic psychologists render
an opinion as to whether an individual is competent to stand trial, whether the
person is capable and competent to continue with the legal proceedings in the
court of law. Thus, forensic psychology mainly focuses in the association
between psychology and law.
Forensic psychology deals with work related to prisons, victims of crime,
witnesses to the crime, and handles counselling of ‘at-risk’ youths.A forensic
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Criminal Psychology psychologist does not evaluate criminals. He/ she focusses on cases related to
both criminal and civil law. He/ she assists lawyers and advocates, as well as
the law enforcement in regard criminal investigation. render an opinion as to
whether an individual is competent to stand trial, whether the person is
capable and competent to continue with the legal proceedings in the court of
law. A forensic psychologist also renders opinion as to whether an individual
is competent to stand trial, whether the person is capable and competent to
continue with the legal proceedings in the court of law.
Criminal psychology uses the psychological expertise in evaluating
criminals, whereas forensic psychology does not evaluate criminals.
Furthermore, criminal psychology focusses on criminal behavior, whereas
forensic psychology focusses on cases related to both criminal and civil law.
Thus, the focus of criminal psychology is on crime and criminal behaviour. A
criminal psychologist could look in to the history, past experiences of the
criminal, in order to ascertain his/ her behaviour. Various factors related to
the crime are also analysed. Further, criminal psychologists are also involved
in ascertaining the progress of the offender when he/ she has been sentences
or after a treatment play is assigned to him/ her.
A criminal psychologist uses psychological expertise in evaluating criminals,
He/ she may also conduct studies using psychological tools focusing on the
causes of criminal behaviour. A criminal psychologist is also involve din
devising psychological tests that could tap the criminal traits and tendencies
in individuals. He/ she helps in policy decisions regarding prevention of
crime in society and may present number of measures, tools and techniques
to prevent crime and criminal behaviours
Forensic psychologists work with judges and lawyers. They may also serve
as legal consultants and could be involve din assessment of competency to
stand trial and assessment of the mental health of the criminal. The focus of
forensic psychology is also on investigation of crime and processes related to
the judiciary. Whereas, a criminal psychologist is mainly involved in the
assessment and treatment of the offender.
To summarise, the difference between forensic psychology and criminal
psychology, forensic psychology involves analysis of the effect that the crime
has on the victims and also on the mental status of the offender. Criminal
psychology on the other hand involves determination of the reason why the
criminal may have committed the crime.

Check Your Progress II

1) List any one difference between forensic psychology and criminal
psychology.
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4.4 LET US SUM UP Introduction to
Criminal
Psychology
To sum up, the present unit focused on the field of criminal psychology.
Criminal psychology is one of the sub- specialities under forensic
psychology. Criminal psychology can be described as a branch of Applied
Psychology that focuses on determination of the criminal’s reasons for
committing a crime. It can also be described as a study of thoughts,
intensions, reactions and wills of a criminal so as to ascertain why the crime
was committed. The word “criminal” originates from the French word
“criminel” meaning criminal, despicable etc. and it directly rises from the
Latin word “criminalis” pertaining to crime. The word “psychology” is a
combination of two words, viz., ‘psyche’ and ‘logos’, that is, “psyche” means
MIND and ‘logos’ means ‘the study of’. Thus, ‘psychology’ means the study
of the mind and ‘criminal psychology’ means the study of the criminal mind.
The unit mainly focused on the nature and scope of criminal psychology. The
roles and functions of a criminal psychologist were also highlighted. The unit
further discussed about how criminal psychology can be related to other
fields. Difference between forensic psychology and criminal psychology was
also discussed, where it was mentioned that forensic psychology involves
analysis of the effect that the crime has on the victims and also on the mental
status of the offender. Criminal psychology on the other hand involves
determination of the reason why the criminal may have committed the crime.

4.5 REFERENCES
Bartol, C.R. and Bartol, A.M. (2008). Introduction to Forensic Psychology.
Research and Application. (2nd edition). Barnes & Nobles, NY.
Canter, D. (2017). Criminal Psychology. New York: Routledge.
Harmening, W and Gamez, A. M. (2016). Forensic Psychology. Delhi:
Pearson.
Haward, Lionel and Gisli H. Gudjonsson (1998). Forensic Psychology:
Practitioner's Guide. NY: Routledge
Huss, M. T. (2014). Forensic Psychology: Research, Clinical Practices and
Applications. USA: Wiley.
Polizzi, D and Draper, M. R. (2016). Forensic Psychology Reconsidered: A
Critique of Mental Illness and the Courts. New York: Routledge.
Shipley, A.L and Arrigo, B. A. (2012). Introduction to Forensic Psychology:
Court, Law Enforcement and Correctional Practices. New York: Elsevier.
Veeraraghavan, Vimala (2009). Handbook of Forensic Psychology. Select
Scientific Publishers, New Delhi.
Walker, L., & Shapiro, D. (2004). Introduction to forensic psychology.
Kluwer Academic / Plenum Publishers.

4.6 KEY WORD

Criminal psychology: Criminal psychology can be described as a branch of
applied psychology that focuses on determination of the criminal’s reasons 67
Criminal Psychology for committing a crime. It can also be described as a study of thoughts,
intensions, reactions and wills of a criminal so as to ascertain why the crime
was committed.

4. 7 ANSWERS TO CHECK YOUR PROGRESS

Check Your Progress I
1) List the roles and functions of a criminal psychologist
A criminal psychologist performs many roles and functions including
carrying out research, treating the accused or the offender, advising
parole boards, intervening clinically to modify the offender’s behaviour,
appear in court as expert witness, serve and advise in mental health
tribunals and use statistical analysis for offender profiling.
Check Your Progress II
1) List any one difference between forensic psychology and criminal
psychology.
The focus of forensic psychology is also on investigation of crime and
processes related to the judiciary. Whereas, a criminal psychologist is
mainly involved in the assessment and treatment of the offender.

4.8 UNIT END QUESTIONS

1. Discuss the nature and scope of criminal psychology.
2. Explain the roles and functions of a criminal psychologists.
3. Describe criminal psychology and related discipline.
4. Differentiate between forensic psychology and criminal psychology.

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