Clinical criminology: what is it and what are its functions and methods

The penalties of deprivation of liberty, at least in countries where human rights are respected, are aimed at making the individual who has committed a crime learn from it, learning that he should not do it again and leave prison to reintegrate into the society.

However, although the commission of a crime can have many causes, sometimes behind it there is a mental health problem, a dysfunctional personality pattern and antisocial behavior that, if left untreated, will prevent the correct reintegration of the individual into the nucleus Social.

The objective of clinical criminology is to establish the criminological diagnosis that explains the antisocial behavior of a criminal, in order to be able to develop a treatment that helps him adapt to society once he has served his sentence. Let's go deeper into this branch of criminology.

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Clinical criminology

Clinical criminology is the branch of general criminology that aims to study people who have committed a crime in order to

establish a diagnosis of their behavior, propose the prognosis of how it will evolve in the short and long term and develop a treatment in order to ensure that the person does not commit the same crime again. This discipline starts from the clinical and individual study of the offender, understanding that every criminal act is a abnormal behavior, possibly the result of a conflictive personality or a certain problem of violence.

The main purpose of custodial sentences, that is, prison sentences, is reintegration. These types of penalties are applied in order to ensure that the subject who has committed a crime learn from their acts and do not commit them again once you are free, expecting you to behave in a socially appropriate way. This objective is not possible if the offender's pathology is not taken into account, if any, given that will require a specific treatment, this being the usefulness of clinical criminology in the field penal.

Among the referents within the field of clinical criminology we can find figures such as César Lombroso, Rafael Garólofo and Enrico Ferri and within this field there is the intention to undertake the task of diagnosing and treating persons who have committed crime in order to apply the necessary criminal prophylaxis measures to prevent their recurrence commit it. In the words of Benigno Di Tullio, the treatment of people who have committed crimes focuses on physical-psychosomatic, social, ethical, educational and moral rehabilitation.

Methodology of clinical criminology

Within the methodology of clinical criminology the following points can be highlighted:

• Direct understanding with the offender
• Medical exam
• Psychological examination, focusing on the individual's personality
• Social survey about the environment in which the individual developed

In the clinical method applied in criminology, multiple scientific disciplines are involved, with which it can be affirmed that this branch of criminological science is multidisciplinary. The clinical work approached at the crime scene, commission of the act and individual who has carried out is a scientific investigation involving biology, neurology, psychiatry and medicine general.

All the data obtained from these branches are applied to the explanation of the possible causes behind the commission of the crime or the criminality of the individual, oriented to obtain the data and reports related to the organic functioning, neurological, physiological, endocrinological, somatic and mental state applied to research criminological. This same information is what you can reveal to us what anomalous or pathogenic causes have predisposed the individual to present antisocial personality and behavior that has shown.

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Criminological diagnosis

The clinical criminological diagnosis is made in order to determine the degree of dangerousness of the offender. At this point in the evaluation, 4 important phases are taken into account in the commission of the criminal act.

• Mitigating consent: conceives and does not reject the possibility of the offender's crime.
• Formulated consent: where the person decides to commit the crime.
• State of danger
• Step into the act: the commission of the crime.

Each individual is a different entity, that is, a person with their biological, psychological and social individuality., and therefore the reasons that have pushed someone to commit a crime are very varied. That is why it is necessary to know the subject as deeply as possible, study it and address it taking into account their family, personal and social history, data that They will facilitate the criminological diagnosis in case of having a disorder or pathological behavioral pattern, determine the criminological personality profile and the genesis of the crime.

Even so, it should be mentioned that although the personal and family history of an individual is known before the commission of the crime and that Determine the type of personality you have does not offer a solution to the problem, but it does give information on how you could proceed from this point, contributing to the development of a plan for reintegration into treatment.

Criminological treatment

The criminological treatment is the set of elements, rules and techniques that are applied in order to restructure the personality and behavior of a person, in order to turn him into a functional individual towards society, that is, to fully reintegrate himself and not to commit a crime of any kind. Thus, criminological treatment can be defined as the means to prevent the individual from reoffending.

The treatment to be applied will vary greatly depending on the type of crime, the personality type of the individual who did it and the diagnosis fundamentally. The treatment must conform to what is pre-established by law, not violate fundamental rights and must be subject to criminological investigation, in order to prevent the crime and also avoid the excessive extension of the treatment.

Individual-family treatment

In clinical criminology, the effect that the family can have on the individual and their relationship in the commission of the crime is not ignored, since the family is the primary and fundamental cell in society. Its influence is very powerful in most people, to such an extent that it may be responsible for the erratic behavior of the person who has committed a crime, especially if there are dysfunctional dynamics at the core family.

There are many ways in which family influences us, even as adults. The influence of intimate characteristics on the dynamics of the family group, the personality of the parents, the relationships with relatives, the criminal history of a close member and various other aspects profoundly mark the formation of the human being, greatly influencing the individual. All of this can result in a person committing crimes, if the right conditions exist for the development of a pathological and dysfunctional personality.

It is for all this that, in case the necessary tools are available and the family of the person involved has an interest In collaborating, it should also proceed to intervene on the family, modifying the pathological dynamics that may exist there and improving the functionality of both the individual once they have served their sentence and the other members of their family nucleus. Intervening in the family can not only prevent the person who committed the crime from doing it again, but also prevent a relative from committing a criminal act.