Psychological Positivism: Is violence and criminal behaviour a mental illness? – A South African Perspective.
Psychological positivism begs the question: Is violence and criminal behaviour the result of mental illness? Englander (2003:72) discusses a study conducted in Switzerland in which 893 mental patients had their medical records reviewed. Of those discharged, 28% had committed a crime within 10 years. These crimes were both property and violent in nature even though most of the violent crimes were petty and more in the nature of a threat. It was found that only schizophrenics had committed severely violent crimes. The study therefore shows that there is a clear increased risk for criminality among the mentally ill. A lesser clear picture emerges though about an increased risk for violent criminality.
According to Englander, studies have therefore shown that there is a link between criminality and mental illness.
According to the above research and the premises that positivism is based on, all one would need to do is ensure a correct diagnosis of the individual and prescribe a solution.
Positivism has made a very significant contribution to the explanation of criminal behaviour and showing a link between criminal behaviour and psychological abnormalities in an individual. This can be seen in the research mentioned above.
To show how this has contributed to the Criminal Justice System in South Africa, “an accused may be referred for observation in a state-appointed psychiatric hospital for thirty days or longer. According to sections 77 and 79 of the Criminal Procedures Act, 1997 (Act no 51 of 1977), the accused may be found to be mentally ill or not mentally ill at the time of the alleged offence, fit to stand trial or not fit to stand trial, to have the capability to appreciate the wrongfulness of the act in question and to act accordingly or not”. (Pistorius 2005: 114)
Well known South African profiler, Micki Pistorius proves how valuable the contribution of Psychological profiling is in the field of criminology. Profiling is defined as “an investigative technique by which to identify the major personality and behavioral characteristics of the offender based upon analysis of the crime(s) he/she committed” (Pistorius 20058:6). It is important to investigating a criminal event or act as it narrows the scope of the investigation. Profiling attempts to study the individual’s needs and deduce what kind of person the individual may be.
Micki Pistorius, South Africa’s first profiler bases a lot of her analysis of the offender’s on Sigmund Freud’s Psychoanalytical Theory. She states in her book, Profiling Serial Killers and other crimes in South Africa, that “my
theory rests mainly on Freud’s theories of the topology of the psyche and the psychosexual developmental phases.
In her book describing her methodology of profiling, she shows a correlation between mental abnormalities in all her cases. When profiling the Phoenix Serial Killer, (Sipho Agmatir Twala), Pistorious predicted that although the offender would not suffer from a mental disorder, and that the offender is sane and knew what he was doing, he did however suffer from a personality disorder such as antisocial or narcissistic personality disorder. Upon his arrest and after being interviewed by Pistorius, he confirmed that her profile of him was 99 percent accurate. She interviewed Twala’s mother and sister who confirmed that his aggressive outbursts had scared them and they described him as moody and dangerous.
In the case of the Station Strangler, (Norman Azval Simons), Pistorius correctly believed that the motivation for the killings were intrinsic and the killings were a form of revenge for Simons being sodomised himself when he was a young boy. She also correctly predicted that he had paedophilic and psychopathic tendencies and that he was manipulative and felt no remorse. The result was that Norman Simon had been in and out of mental institutions and that a nurse from an institution actually recognised the identikit drawn up of him. He had been diagnosed with borderline personality disorder which incorporates psychopathic tendencies.
These are just two examples of the how Psychological positivism is used in the criminal justice system and how important it’s contribution is.
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