Criminology and Psychiatry Psychiatry has shown more interest in the problem of crime than has psychology. This state of affairs can be understood when we remember that psychiatrists as experts have been de- termining the criminal responsibility of a defendant. Psy- chiatry's theoretical interest in crime has been stimulated through the problems of the psychiatric court expert. In their work on problems of delinquency and crime, psy- chiatrists have encountered two main difficulties: First: Being physicians, psychiatrists have been accustomed to helping "patients," i.e., "sufferers." The delinquent or criminal may be put to suffering once he is apprehended and punished; he may show symptoms of suffering when he is pre- vented from continuing his asocial activities.
National Center for Public Policy: In federal judge's ruling is wrong, says scholar: The three dozen states considering drug tests for welfare recipients can do so under the law and U.S. constitution. Retrieved from http://www.nationalcenter.org/PR-DrugTests_112211.html. Cooper, H. (November 22, 2011). National Center for Public Policy: In drug testing of welfare recipients is sound, sensible and constitutional. Retrieved from http://www.nationalcenter.org/NPA627.html.
Different sociologists have presented different theories and concepts to explain what drives a person to commit a crime, and research and statistics give us an idea of the type of crimes committed and the places that they’re most likely to occur. However, these statistics can prove to be misleading as not all crime is reported to or recorded by the police. This can be referred to as the ‘hidden figure’, and it differentiates between the official crime rate and the real rate. Despite this, they do prove to be worthwhile in the fact that they display trends and patterns of crime. Sociologists use three different methods to measure crime; each method provides us with particular information and as in all systems of data collecting, there are strengths and weaknesses to the method.
Theories on Crime Comparison: Psychological Positivism At the end of the 19th, and into the early 20th century a new school of thought emerged in regard to behavior, called positivism. This theoretical principle maintained that a person’s behaviors, although also the product of free will, were primarily the result of a person’s biological, psychological, and social traits. Modern criminologists continue to use components of the positivist theoretical approach in determining criminal behavior; however, many experts are of the opinion that various aspects of this school of thought are obsolete. This view originates from the knowledge that medical science, psychological research, and sociological studies are far more advanced than they were 100 years ago. Nevertheless, criminologists continue to find useful aspects of old studies even from discredited psychological theories, like psychoanalysis (Williams & McShane, 2009).
Background Research on Criminology Criminology is the scientific study of crime its causes and how to resolve it. One common theory of criminology is the psychological theory. This theory explains crime in the mind set of the criminal. The psychological theory of crime is basically that some people are born with a mind which is intended to do harm to others. In other cases some criminals are born with the lack of humility, which is the ability to put yourself in the situation of the person who you are doing harm to.
Describe the reliability and validity of classification and diagnosis of depression (10marks) It is particularly hard to diagnose depression, however in1883, a man called Kraepelin created the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders shortened to DSM. There have been several editions since that date, the edition we are on today is DSM-IV which was put into place in 1994. Symptoms are grouped together and called a certain syndrome or disease. The DSM is used all over the world by all Psychiatrists making it valid. However it is very hard to group certain symptoms with a certain disease or syndrome as many conditions overlap.
Medical experts , disagree over whether the brain tumor found in his autopsy had any effect on his actions (A+E Networks, 2012). The actions taken Whitman should be studied even further, his mental state could reveal whether serial killers do in fact suffer from some form of mental illness. This could also be a new defense for criminals who commit violent acts in the future, by claiming that they committed these crimes due to a mental illness and were not responsible for their own actions. Whitman’s actions may have been
Although, the MRI studies have been unable to produce statistically significant evidence in support of volumetric loss of brain mass, several theories associated with the serotonergic and noradrenergic synapses of the brain have prevailed in the neurobiological research literature associated with the etiological cause of depressive affective disorder. The theory historically most researched and prominent in the etiological studies of depression is the monoamine system theory. Evidence shows that monoamine inhibitors increase the levels of serotonin, tryptamine, and norepinephrine, the proteins that are present in the cytoplasm of the neuron of neurotransmitters that regulate mood, well-being and sleep leading to a focus on causes of underactivity of these synapses and receptors for these monoamines (Sourkes,
Sometimes, crime happens suddenly because criminals don’t think before they act and this kind of crimes are usually called “unplanned crimes”. What we need to know here is planned or unplanned, both kinds of crimes are choices and these choices are made by the effects of the causes of crime. People have been trying to explain the causes of crime since the first known crime. Crime is usually considered as a bad behavior in the big majority of the societies. When we look through history, we can see the ancient Babylon Laws of Hammurabi as the first written source created to control the bad behaviors.
For example, he and his collaborators were the first ever to describe and explain the form of epilepsy known now as Taylor’s dysplasia. However, they used their observations to support their scientific misconception regarding the relationship between criminality, epilepsy, and genius”; although his work is no longer considered an acceptable foundation for modern-day criminology., psychiatry has taken his idea of locating crime completely within the individual and completely removed from the surrounding social conditions and structures. Because I could not any information regarding why his theory was