Psyche of Criminal Mind.

Psyche of Criminal mind- a perplexing mystery

Aditi Gyanesh

Whenever a crime takes place, no matter how insignificant it is, it creates havoc in people’s mind. They continuously think what would be the mindset of the person who committed such a heinous or strange act. Psyche of a criminal mind has always been a mystery for people across the world.

As per studies of criminal psychology in Delhi University and different psychologists in city a criminal mind can vary from hard core criminal (may be having base in brain chemistry) to that of a normal individual. The psychological factors that makes a criminal mind includes an unrestricted or uncontrollable impulse for anything, lack of sensitivity to other’s right and suffering, fear (of law, loss of reputation) is either undeveloped, transiently overwhelmed or is assessed to be taken care of.

“Human mind is one of the most complicated structures in world. It’s as typical as taking out each and every thread from a tangled ball. People often come to me with this kind of questions and that is natural but it’s difficult to explain such crucial instincts to normal person verbally,” said Dherendra Kumar, known psychologist in Delhi.

The sudden impulse like lust, greed, anger, or passion for money and opposite sex overwhelms other mental faculties. In this situation when human being is controlled by one of these emotions, lack of sensitivity to other’s rights or suffering is lost, which leads the person to conduct the crimes like rapes, murders, continuous mental or physical tortures and many more.

“Aarushi murder case is one of the examples of impulsive murder case, which was the result of parents’ anger,” said S.K. Sharma, Delhi-based psychiatrist. “Same is with Nirbhaya-gang rape case, on December 16, when the accused attacked Nirbhaya out of rage, in spirit of anger and lust after being drunk,” he added.

The tendency to commit different crimes varies from person to person, although the psychological impulse remains same, lust, greed and anger. Crimes like spreading terrorism, white collared crimes, forgery, identity theft, burglary and many others, all have different people with different mindsets. People become terrorists in different ways, in different roles, and for different reasons. Perceived injustice, need for identity and need for belonging are common vulnerabilities among potential impulses in terrorists’ mind.

Apart from terrorism and other crimes like rapes murder, physical and mental abuse prevailing in society, there is trend of white collared crimes, forgery and identity theft. The press is full of it. Two years back when, SEC accused Rajat Gupta, a senior executive at McKinsey & Company and a former director of Goldman Sachs, of providing inside information to a hedge fund.

Corporate scams like those of Mr. Gupta are obviously found influenced by lust and greed for money. “The temptation to attain profit from their positions adds to their spirit of committing such crimes. They are not scared because they have feeling of not being arrested, in any case,” said Deepak Raheja, a psychiatrist dealing with criminals.

To explain psychology of criminal mind to those with the normal mindsets, criminal activities can be divided into three--- impulsive, planned and repetitive. When the person is under control of lust and greed, he or she calculates the gain versus danger, and when gains weigh heavier, the plan is executed. In repetitive impulse initial success acts as instigation for repeated and bigger crimes.

In most of the cases, the person who is convicted or accused is told to suffer from “Anti-social personality disorder”. It is the development of the person’s personality in such a way that he or she does not learn socially appropriate skills and behaviour patterns which are based on respecting others’ rights and feelings. There is aggression, lack of guilt, lack of tolerance of frustration causing disregard for social values and norms.

“Sudden aggression and passion blows away person’s ability to understand or react, I was influenced by my friends to ask for money from my uncle and when he refused to give. I could not control my aggression and murdered him. Now at age of 50, I realize that what I did was inhuman and unexpected,” said Bahadur Chand (name changed), who was convicted 20 years back for murder of his uncle. Bahadur lives in Ravi dass camp, in Delhi which is a small slum, and works in a small auto garage now.

There are basically two types of aggression, hostile aggression: is motivated by anger or hatred and is intended only to make the victim suffer. Instrumental aggression on the other hand is motivated by an incentive, usually economic. Undoubtedly, hostile and instrumental aggressions are often combined in the same act.

In addition to brain differences, people who end up being convicted for crimes often show behavioural differences compared with the rest of the population. Perceived feeling of being deprived, unsuccessful, inability of meeting the desired goal in socially appropriate manner and correctness of one’s self need are some of the factors that differentiate a criminal mind from those of normal man.

A criminal mind and a normal mind differ in terms of their perception of the world and the meaning that is attributed to personal experiences. This interpretation in the case of a criminal mind is based on extremity and is symbolic of intra psychic conflict, according to the Freudian school of thought. In some cases, thinking may be coloured with several cognitive distortions, whereas in some cases there may be complete shift of reality, where the individual may be operating on various delusions and hallucinations. Another factor that distinguishes a criminal and a normal mind is self-esteem, the evaluative dimension of the self that includes feelings of worthiness, pride and discouragement. It exists as a consequence of the implicit judgement that every person has of their ability to face life's challenges, to understand and solve problems, and their right to achieve happiness, and be given respect. The understanding of self esteem in a criminal mind is distorted.

Overall, these studies paint a picture of significant differences between people who commit serious crime and people who do not. Not all people with antisocial personality disorder, or even psychopaths end up breaking law and not all criminals meet criteria of these disorders. Different criminal minds have different symptoms to define it.

“It is important to understand that the social and psychological factors are more ‘felt’ than actually understood. That is why not every person, who is deprived, becomes a criminal and on other hand those with plenty may turn to crime,” says Dr. Deepak Raheja.

Increasing number of heinous crimes in India has raised questions on the mindset of the society which is actually making people vulnerable to crime. There are three main deterrents against crime - legal, social and religious. Unfortunately, all three are falling down. This paves way to break the psychological barrier against crime. Reasons like loneliness, lack of social and emotional support system, changing priorities due to changing value system, lack of fear, poor emotional quotient and social quotient ultimately signals brain to harm other people out of rage.

Rapes being one of the topmost crimes in India according to National Crime Records Bureau in 2011 have triggered the senses of common people. Involvement of Juveniles in sexual crimes, increased number of sexual crimes especially those with minors has alarmed the country after the outrageous Nirbhaya-gang rape case and rapid increase in juvenile crimes. Every second sexual harassment case reported now involves minors as the victims.

Psychology behind rapes depends upon lust, anger and jealousy majorly and in case of rapes of minors its lust for physical contact and having sex. The basic factor is, women are perceived as weak, vulnerable with no voice. The perception that they cannot and will not complaint due to fear of stigma and discrimination encourages the perpetrators of such crimes.

Sensitization in society and media has majorly affected people, which have renewed the concept of women being helpless. Media being motivator of women on one hand has actually used her creation on earth for promoting their business. People with poor educational standards and poverty hit backgrounds do not understand the marked line between sensitization and actuality. Losing their senses they develop lust in their inner mind especially Juveniles and start searching for prey. Addiction to alcohol and drugs, which they think is important for standard living, adds to the degree of crime.

“After so much of hue and cry over women safety, now minors are being the easiest prey to attack on, as they are least resistant,” said S.K. Sharma, a psychiatrist.

All factors which ‘encourages’ crime in general becomes more prominent in cases of minors. Small kids offer least resistance and threat. In certain crimes they do not even know what has happened to them. And this is what such criminals look for. Their minds are working on only one principle – pleasure and pain. They know that with older people they are in risk of resistance and retaliation which is painful for them. Even the feeling of being judged as bad person is painful. So their minds are trained to search for soft targets which offer no pain.

As mentioned above Juveniles are equally involved in sexual crimes now days as elderly criminals. Curiosity to know everything, carelessness of parents, exposure to everything in media, low education standard and peer pressure affects a juvenile very rapidly, and they want to behave like elders. They crave for everything they see in front of them which ultimately lands them in trouble. Peer pressure during adolescence is strong, sometimes so strong that teenagers engage in antisocial acts.

A juvenile criminal mind is characterized by low intelligence, impulsiveness or the inability to delay gratification, aggression, empathy, and restlessness, or troublesome behaviour, language delays or impairments during childhood development and lack of emotional control. Mindset of juvenile criminals is characterized by two prominent factors – high impulsiveness and incomplete social maturity. Every society expects or sets a particular age by which social maturity is attained. To pull them out of that situation a holistic program is required which deals with their circumstances, their correct social learning and their personality development.

According to members of different juvenile boards of Delhi and Chandigarh, they feel that good number of detainees accused of rape and murder are slapped with these charges for being present on the scene of crime. But in cases where the juveniles are charged of heinous crime, their age borders 18 years or the age is doubtful. Many times it’s just a few months less than 18 years.

Many of the convicts and juveniles accused in these sexual crimes or any unexpected antisocial activity turns out to be mental patients later on. Later when they are exposed to society, they are filled with feeling of revenge and in spirit of taking revenge they keep on committing crime again and again. Psychologists deal such kind of criminals as psychopaths and sociopaths. Nithari case, in 2006, the Noida serial murder case of children by a businessman’s servant Surender Kholi, is one of those cases that involved psychopathic activity.

Difference between sociopaths and psychopaths are always debated in terms of inborn versus environmental, the basic difference is that a psychopath has locus of disorder in temperaments (poor EQ) leading to social disorder (poor SQ) whereas a sociopath has social disorder as locus leading to temperamental disorder.

Psychopaths are born having temperamental distinctions that cause the behaviour of risk seeking, impulsiveness, fearlessness as well as inability to socialize in an ordinary manner. On the other hand sociopaths are born having normal temperaments, and their condition is a consequence of the negative environmental experiences that influence autonomic nervous system and neurological growth which may result in physiological responses like those which psychopaths present. 

After discussion on so much of psychological ideologies of criminal mind, now the question arises that what is actually the way out from all this increasing psychological disorders in society’s mindset. Increasing crime level has become a concern for everyone. After Delhi-gang rape case everyone is concerned about reforms.

Senior lawyer at Supreme Court and former Solicitor general of India Gopal Subramanium said, “No doubt we need reforms but for binging those reform we all have to implement a well thought and framed strategy. Press, police, politicians every part of society needs reforms.” Gopal Subramanium is also member of J.S Verma Committee established for framing recommendations to reforms society for females, and males also upto an extent.

After heights of heinous crimes in society Indian government finally decided to bring reforms and make India a better place to live where there would be less sexual crimes. It suggested for J.S. Verma Committee, which later on came up with required changes in law and order to bring down the rate of sexual crimes in India. It covered all the sections of society from political leader to low class people.

Apart from framing different rules and regulations there is another changes which needs to be brought in like psychological changes. Society and family must uphold value system. Unfortunately in today’s world the difference between right and wrong are getting blurred. This leads to breaking down of the psychological barriers in people’s mind to resist from erring in the zone of wrong.   The individuals who are already crept into world of crime and needs to be changed should be helped with proper and adequate treatment which is inclusive of spiritual awareness, counselling, pharmacotherapy and a supportive rehabilitation program to help cope with their inner conflicts and lead meaningful and functional lives.

“Taking initiatives would be a better option to for bringing in reforms rest depends on society what kind of changes it needs,” said Deepak Raheja later.