Criminal Mindset and Rape

Introduction

After reading news articles related to rape, the first thing that crosses our mind is how people can do such barbaric acts so easily? Aren’t they afraid of getting punished? Study shows that people who commit these heinous crimes are not at all afraid of conviction and keen on doing it without much worry. That’s our common thought process for rapists and scientific research adds value to it. The main aim of this research paper is to show a different side of the story and to go in-depth to explain why some of the rapists take such vicious steps. We will look more into the psychological factors that trigger these situations. It cannot be denied that it is the sexual urges that make rapists do it and as a result of such urges they become uncontrollable. But apart from that, there are cases where it can be observed that other than sexual urges rapists are more traumatized after what they did. In such cases where the rapist himself doesn’t remember what he has done is because of the dark past he had. And this affects the mental health of the rapist poorly. There are other psychological or mental health problems besides traumatic pasts that scientists have come up with after years offenses research and surveys being conducted on rapists. Such mental illness increases the chance offenses more violent sexual assault.

Human Psychology and crime

Psychology – Psychology is a science that studies the mental  behavior of a human being. It deals  with the conscious and unconscious state of mind. Psychology plays an important role in determining the suspect by analyzing  their behavior and  mindset during the crime. Law enforcement agencies often depend on these experts to get inside the mind of a potential culprit by determining the perpetrator’s likely personality type, lifestyle habits and quirks.

Psychology had played a contributory role in the legal aspect as it helps in identifying the ‘mens rea’ of a criminal while committing the crime, truthfulness of witnesses, and what punishment should be given to a person committing an offence, by considering the person’s psychological frame of mind. To some extent, psychology has started identifying a criminal as a person who is suffering from a mental disorder and thus advised  that such persons should be medically treated and not punished. 

Psychology of a Criminal

Criminal psychology is a science which studies the intentions, actions, reactions, thoughts and views of the criminals and the ones who are inclines to criminal behaviour. Criminal psychology belongs from the field of criminal anthropology. The study helps in analyzing the mindset and behavior of a person – what makes a person commit a crime as well as the reactions of a person after committing the crime, on the run, or in court. 

Legal psychologists are also known as Criminal psychologists. They  are the ones who make the decisions on offenders and observe if the offenders are a threat to the society. Criminal Psychologists are often called in the court as a witness, so that they can help the members to understand the mindset of criminals. . Criminal behavior can be coined as “any kind of antisocial behavior, which is usually punishable under law but can be even punished by norms stated by the community”.

Criminal psychologists are sometimes required to form a hypothesis, to estimate what will be the next step of the offender after he has infringed the law. The question of sanity or insanity or criminal responsibility of his mind at the time of the crime of the offender helps in evaluating his state of mind.  

Roles played by Criminal Psychologists

Roles of a Criminal Psychologists are mentioned below :-

• Offender Profiling/ Criminal Profiling– It is one of an important role of a criminal psychologists. The criminal psychologist under offender profiling examines the thoughts and behavior of the criminals. Criminal Profiling is a process by  which the psychologist seeks to identify the person emotional, personality, and mental characteristics that are based on things done or left at the crime scene.
• Rapport Maintaining –   Rapport means a condition where two people are able to feel that they are able to connect and communicate with each other. Rapport is usually includes values, interests, and might involve other personal factors. The feeling of rapport can be encouraged through eye contact, mutual attention, mirroring body postures, etc. The psychologist tries to stimulate this type of relationship with the individual because it is important for the psychologists to maintain effective communication, so that they can gain the confidence of the accused in order to make them comfortable and can easily shares his thoughts without any pressure. 
• Advisory Role –  Psychologists advices the police on how to proceed in a case.
• Actuarial Role – This role includes a psychologists to use a statistics in order to inform a case. In this case, psychologists may be asked to provide the probability of an event that is going to occur in future.

What is the ratio of rapists having some psychological or mental issues?

Schizophrenia Disorder is a serious mental disorder in which people are not able to differentiate between delusion and reality. This mental illness is majorly found in the sexual offenders who show a more violent nature in comparison to the criminals having no mental illness. Here are the surveys being conducted on sexual offenders from different countries:

Research shows that an offender having no sign of schizophrenia is more likely to have developed other mental diseases like pedophilia, exhibitionism, and sadism.

Bipolar disorder is a state of extreme happiness or sadness and a person is presumed to be in a manic phase when diagnosed with this illness. It is another mental illness found in a sexual offender having a difficult childhood. According to a survey conducted in Sweden in the year between 1973 and 2004, it was found out that people diagnosed with bipolar disorder were more aggressive(8.4%) in comparison to the general population(3.5%). Moreover, it is highly possible that a rapist having a history of child abuse can become a child molester. There are many such examples in which it is found out that a simple head injury can have an effect on a person’s behavior and make him violent.

What changes can be made?

• Mental assessment should be made mandatory to avoid more cases of rape. If a disease is diagnosed in the early stages, it can be cured easily in the same way mental illness can also be cured.
• Government should make a special care center for such patients.
• Special laws should be passed for such offenders to protect their life as they need care.

Conclusion

As in most cases, rapists are solely responsible for what they did. But after conducting tons of surveys and interviews it is found out that some of the rapists are suffering from a serious mental disease that was not treated at an early stage and as a result of which they become more violent. In foreign countries, laws are changing with time and people have become more serious about the mental health of rapists. As far as India is concerned, there is still no law for rapists who are diagnosed with serious mental illness. Not only childhood but surrounding too plays a vital role in making a person violent in nature. Seeing an interview of the rapists of Nirbhaya case making statements on the dress of that girl it is concluded that family plays a major role in making a person’s thinking good or bad.

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Author: Tannu Shree and Tanya Singh (University of Engineering and Management , Kolkata)