Psychological Positivism: Definition, Causes, And Application In Australian Criminal Justice System

Discuss about the Psychological Positivism.

The intention of the report is to emphasize the concept of Psychological Positivism. It discusses the definition and causes of the crimes that are dealt under this theory. Further, it talks about how this theory seeks to combat the crime. Thereafter, the report highlights the application process of this theory and how the present Australian criminal justice system is influenced. The theory of Psychological Positivism focuses on its significance as well as the criticisms. Finally, it can be concluded stating that all the above-mentioned points will be summed up to conclude the summary of this report.

• Positivism Psychological theory is related to the concept of criminology. It is the approach that underpines the present scientific endeavour and has for a long time as it have been used for investigating the nature of the human behavior. Therefore, it is solely based on the idea of scientific understanding of criminality and crime. This particular theory thereafter discuses the major classes of criminals including the insane criminals, born criminals and criminalist. It is therefore essential to identify that there are many different kinds of explanations that is based on this theory (Maul, Irribarra and Wilson 2016). While dealing with the crimes of psychological theories, one should be intelligent enough to deal with it.
  
  
• Criminology is defined as the study of punishment and crime. There exists basic aspects of psychological theories of crime which state that crime is an outcome of failures during the development of psychological factors. It further discusses about the learned behaviors of violence, aggression and their traits of personality. It highlights the relationship of criminality to the mental illness of the criminals. The Positivist theory views the basic idea of the situation that the criminals are born as such and not made into criminals later. The criminal intent is based on the nature and behavior of the pupils. Individuals are judged based on the activities they are involved with. This theory views those persons on how the mental processes has an impact on the propensities for violence. There are formulation of positivism that overviews the causes of these crimes. These formulations are the basic reasons for judging and viewing the criminals.
  
  
• As per the theory of Positivism Psychology, it has been stated that crime is a major complex phenomenon that modifies it all across the cultures and time. The illegal activities that take place in the country by those individuals are taken care when this theory is applied on them (Greene 2017). The theory of Positivism Psychology is a traditional research that seeks to determine the objective reasons of the behavior of the individuals. After identifying the causes of the crimes, the mental health of the offenders are checked and thereafter, a decision is taken on them. The offenders are tested by applying the psychological theories. Hence, once they are applied to the criminals, the change will be observed thereafter. It has been observed that culture has changed over the years and the behavior of the individuals have made it evident that they are inclined to be a criminal. Thus, once the psychological tests are done and the crimes are identified, the criminals will be provided treatment. By this way, the crimes taking place in the society can be combated. Reducing or decreasing the crimes are important and can be done only if this theory is applied accordingly.

• The theory of Psychological Positivism from a criminological perspective submits that the reasons behind crimes being committed by people are internal psychological factors which are beyond their control. It has been established that law is a means of social control and thus aims at providing social conformity. This is why all forms of crimes are essentially modes of social deviance. The thesis that the theory of Psychological Positivism is not relevant under the presently prevalent social standards cannot be concurred with due to various reasons, predominantly because intent still forms a large part of criminal allegations and intent in solely dependent on the psychological aspects of the perpetrator’s personality (Young 2013). This thus means that psychological aspects still play an active role in determining guilt or innocence in various forms of crimes and thus is a relevant element of criminology. In criminological theory criminal intention is termed as “mens rea” and the criminal act is codified as “actus reas” (McShanev 2013). These two contributory aspects together consolidate and constitute the crime. This is not always true as for many crimes the act alone is sufficient to deduce guilt, however in case of heinous crimes such as murder the criminal intention of the party plays a presiding role in determining guilt. This criminal intention or mens rea can only be established by an in-depth analysis of the psychology of the perpetrator especially the psychological aspects that contributed to the development of a motive or the criminal intention.
  
  
• The case of Murray v The Queen[2002] HCA 26 considered the definition of murder as defined in the Crimes Act, 1900 (Burke 2017). Here the criminal intention of the accused in committing the heinous crime was considered when determining if the charge could be reduced to culpable homicide not amounting to murder which is often also known as manslaughter. Thus the psychological state of the accused was considered as an important element of the crime, furthermore the circumstances that lead to the formation of the psychological condition of the accused was also considered as a contributory factor in determining mens rea. If the charge was reduced to manslaughter due to lack of criminal intent the same would be established through an in-depth analysis of the accused mental state which would establish a lack of malicious motive. In the defense of temporary insanity which is a common defense in such cases or the establishment of “grave and sudden provocation” which prompted the occurrence of the crime the psychological state of the accused is of grave importance and plays an important role in reduction of charges and sentences (Cohen 2017). To successfully establish either of the above mentioned defenses it would be essential to prove that the accused was in a psychological state that clouded his or her usual level of prudence and reasonableness and that these were clouded due to psychological factors beyond their control. Thus, the psychological aspect would be a significant element in the judgment finally delivered by the court in terms of the charges brought against the accused. Beyond just mens rea there are various other aspects of psychological criminology that are useful in understanding criminal behavior and social deviance. In the classical theory of criminology, it is theorized that socio-economic factors surrounding an individual can imbibe criminal behavior or irrational forms of social deviance. The comprehension of such a nexus between the socio-economic factors and deviant conduct of individuals can only be explained through a psychological analysis of the effects of the socio-economic conditions of the psyche of an individual (Young, Taylor and Walton 2013). At times depression, lack of recreation and a lack of understanding of societal obligations are key factors that provoke crime and deviance. However, each of these relate to the mental state of the perpetrator and how that imbibes criminal conduct. Finally, in cases of juvenile offenders sentences are reduced and ideally psychological assistance is prescribed in the judgment instead of a custodial sentence. This is because of the consideration that juvenile offenders do not fully understand the implications of their actions and their societal obligations (Vito and Maahs 2015). The prescription of psychological assistance from professionals proves that the same is an ideal way to improve and inculcate social conformity. Thus, the psychological aspect here as well plays an important role in determining the reasonable penal action against a perpetrator. The accused is considered to be rehabilitated and reintegrated into societal norms after the completion of the prescribed period of treatment and is no longer considered a deviant. Thus, the theory of psychological positivism is relevant and is still applied in criminal theory on a regular basis today.

• Relevance of theory

• It can be said that offenders can be easily differentiated from non-offenders. From the very beginning, Psychological Positivism has been considered as a school of thought that formed massive impact upon the modern criminal justice system of Australia (Held 2017). However, it differed in its perspectives in regard to various theoretical bases as well as practical methods. These practical methods were structured for preventing anti-social conduct and criminal behavior. IN this regard, it is worthwhile to refer here that the school of Psychological Positivism has been locating the source of criminality exiting between individual minds by applying different behavourial features, anti-social personality disorder and inefficiency in self-regulation. It is worth mentioning that the nature of Psychological Positivism is such that has been advocating the continuation of research in the areas of crime. According to the theory of Psychological Positivism (Burke 2017), it emphasizes on the part that individuals commit crime as a result of the existing internal psychological factors upon which, they have little or no amount of control. However, the nature of the activities are such that it involves criminal personality (Cohen 2017). In this context, various psychological positivists have suggested certain internal factors that have contributed towards the foundation of a criminal mentality or behavior. It is noteworthy to mention here that since time immemorial, psychological positivists has been defined criminals as internal psychological elements or born with criminal attributes. In this regard, they have stated that certain psychological elements have forced these individuals to commit crimes.
  
  
• The concept of Positivism is such that is best upon ideal verification. However, in this regard, various criticisms has been leveled by modern critics by addressing the limitations of the Psychological Positivism. Firstly, it has been excluding the existing modes of Psychological enquiry that involves theology in general. Secondly, it is evident that the tenets of Psychological Positivism is such that it is unverifiable and therefore, the definition has been regarded to have no such meaning at all. Thirdly, Psychological Positivism has been considered as an imperfect representation of the world due to its originality in the Aristotelian black and white language. This concept is completely untrue because the world itself has shades of grey with underlined shades of truth. As a result of which, this theory has been recognized to be uncertain and inaccurate while dealing with criminal offenders (Bray, Darlaston-Jones and Dudgeon 2017). Fourthly, Psychological Positivism emphasizes on the part that the nature of the offenders vary in regard to the underlined differences existing between them. Critics where of the opinion that the nature of such behaviorial changes can be measured and classified through other ways as well. Fifthly, much prominence is laid on the kind of behavorial patterns of the offenders rather than the nature of the criminality. In this regard, critics opined that various offenders can be scientifically study and the factors which leads towards their criminal behavior can be analyzed and classified and rehabilitated as well.

Conclusion

In the conclusion, it can be stated that offenders can escape from the punishment by various ways. The nature of defense mechanism in regard to Psychological Positivism is such that it has been criticized by various critics. However, the functionality of the criminal justice system is still inefficient and unjust. Lastly, it can be concluded that despite various debates on the part of the critics, most of them failed to define the efficacy the criminal profiling by providing much emphasis on the concept of Psychological Positivism. It brings suspicious people into innocent criminals due to the reason that the nature of these individuals are similar to the traits founded by the theory.

References:

Bray, A., Darlaston-Jones, D. and Dudgeon, P., 2017. Teaching Indigenous psychology: a conscientisation, de-colonisation and psychological literacy approach to curriculum. In Teaching Critical Psychology (pp. 145-169). Routledge.

Burke, R.H., 2017. An introduction to criminological theory. Willan.

Butz, M.R., 2018. Chaos and complexity: Implications for psychological theory and practice. CRC Press.

Cohen, S., 2017. Against criminology. Routledge.

Greene, R.R., 2017. Human Behavior Theory and Professional Social Work Practice. In Human Behavior Theory and Social Work Practice (pp. 31-62). Routledge.

Held, B.S., 2017. The distinction between psychological kinds and natural kinds revisited: Can updated natural-kind theory help clinical psychological science and beyond meet psychology’s philosophical challenges?. Review of General Psychology, 21(1), p.82.

Maul, A., Irribarra, D.T. and Wilson, M., 2016. On the philosophical foundations of psychological measurement. Measurement, 79, pp.311-320.

McShane, M., 2013. An Introduction to Criminological Theory. Routledge.

Vito, G.F. and Maahs, J.R., 2015. Criminology. Jones & Bartlett Publishers.

Vito, G.F. and Maahs, J.R., 2015. Criminology. Jones & Bartlett Publishers.

Young, J., 2013. Working-class criminology. In Critical Criminology (Routledge Revivals) (pp. 79-110). Routledge.

Young, J., Taylor, I. and Walton, P., 2013. The new criminology: For a social theory of deviance. Routledge