Mental illness has been, over the years, an associated factor in the vast majority of crimes. However, this thinking is misleading in many ways. First of all, it is necessary to take into account that not every criminal or delinquent suffers from some kind of mental disorder, but furthermore, it is worth highlighting that not every mentally ill person commits criminal acts either , because even if there is a clinical diagnosis, there must be a causal relationship with the act.

As Vicente Garrido Genovés, a prominent Spanish criminologist, rightly mentioned “that someone defies the essential principles that regulate our social life, forged over centuries, is not proof or sufficient reason to think that he is a madman or a sick degenerate” . The question of criminal responsibility and imputability, with respect to someone who commits a crime with a mental illness, has been a subject of constant debate and analysis for decades.

Today, in this article, we review the concepts of psychopathology and unimputability, we also mention some of the mental affectations with the highest criminogenic incidence .

Psychopathology: definition

The health encyclopedia defines psychopathology as “The study of the causes, symptoms, evolution and treatment of mental disorders. In a broad sense, Psychopathology also integrates knowledge about personality, pathological behaviour, family structure and social environment” .

It is mainly psychiatrists and psychologists who are interested in this area, since they constantly collaborate with regard to treatment and research about the origin of clinical pictures, as well as their manifestation and development. While psychiatry is concerned with identifying signs and symptoms that become syndromes, diseases or disorders and their respective treatments, psychology applies knowledge of mental processes, learning and the social context to the understanding of various mental pathologies, from which other disciplines, for example psychotherapy, are derived.

Understanding psychopathology, understanding the criminal

We know that the main sciences interested in this area of study are psychiatry and psychology. However, different disciplines are involved with psychopathology to try to explain the complexity of human behavior; among them criminology, whose main objectives are to find out the reason for the different antisocial behaviors, to understand their etiology and to prevent their continuity .

Although from ancient times it was understood that social deviation could sometimes only be explained by individual internal phenomena such as emotions, states of mind and sometimes subsequent to an illness, it was only two centuries ago, by the hand of jurists such as Lombroso and Garofalo (fathers of criminology) that it was introduced to criminal law.The idea that the criminal did not have free will, an axiom of the positivist school of law, held that most crimes were caused by a series of organic anomalies, including mental illness.

Thus, over the years and with the advance of science and technology it has been gradually discovered that phenomena such as criminal behaviour have their aetiology in the most diverse manifestations of mental pathologies , sometimes as a consequence of some neurological damage, on other occasions, as a product of genetic inheritance. In this way, some of the most atrocious crimes perpetrated thanks to psychopathology have been understood.

Unchargeability

One of the main reasons why psychopathology is involved in the forensic field is to help clarify concepts such as criminal liability (pay criminally for the offence committed) and unimputability (indicate that the person cannot be held criminally liable for what he is accused of).

Psychopathology can sometimes help us to clarify whether someone who has perpetrated a crime performed the act in full use of his or her mental faculties, or whether on the contrary the act was the result of his or her state of mental derangement (the result of a mental syndrome or disorder, for example) and therefore cannot be punished.

Psychiatry, forensic psychology and criminology will work together to use the knowledge provided by psychopathology to clarify whether an offender with a mental pathology committed his antisocial behaviour with intention, discernment and freedom.

Some psychopathologies with a higher incidence in crimes

Below we mention only some of the mental disorders with the highest criminogenic incidence, we make it clear that having such an affectation does not always lead to criminal behaviour.

  • Paranoid schizophrenia (and other psychoses): mental illnesses characterized by presenting clinical pictures where the sense of reality, objectivity and logic is lost , the personality is disorganized and there are hallucinations and delirious ideas. If it is also paranoid schizophrenia , usually those who suffer from it have persecutory manias and suspicions about any subject, whether known or not. Sometimes these manias in which the subject feels persecuted in combination with his loss of contact with reality lead to various antisocial behaviours. An example is the famous case of The Sacramento Vampire who committed a series of atrocious murders after being diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia.
  • Antisocial personality disorder: it is estimated that between 25% and 50% of inmates in prisons suffer from this disorder . They are people characterized by a general failure to adapt to social norms and rules, dishonesty, mythomania, irritability, aggressiveness and lack of remorse, among other characteristics. This disorder is commonly referred to as psychopathy. We reserve the right to list all possible crimes that the antisocial subject may carry out. On the question of his or her unimputability, there are still the most diverse debates on whether or not the psychopath in question is capable of discerning between good and evil.
  • Bipolar personality disorder: is a mood disorder characterized by increases and decreases in expressed activity in the prevailing mental state , characterized by the presence of one or more abnormally high episodes of energy and mood that fluctuate between euphoric and depressive episodes, so that the sufferer oscillates between phases of mania (excitement, delusions of grandeur) and depressive phases . During the manic phase, the subject may experience sudden pictures of impulsiveness and aggressiveness that can sometimes manifest in criminal behavior. In contrast to the depressive phase in which the decrease of neurotransmitters such as serotonin and dopamine can cause the subject to want to make an attempt on his own life.
  • Borderline Personality Disorder: also known as Borderline Personality Disorder or Borderline Personality Disorder . DSM-IV defines it as “a personality disorder that is primarily characterized by emotional instability, extremely polarized and dichotomous thinking, and chaotic interpersonal relationships” .It is often said that those who suffer from this disorder are on the borderline between neurosis and psychosis, and many authors even describe the symptomatology of this disorder as “pseudopsychotic”. The crime may sometimes arise when very brief psychotic episodes occur, however, such subjects are usually able to understand the illicit nature of their acts .
  • Impulse control disorders : group of disorders characterized by poor or no control over their impulses that leads them to perform almost uncontrollable actions, an increase in emotional tension before committing an act, pleasure in committing the action and a feeling after the act of regret or guilt. Those mentioned here are the ones most commonly related to criminal behavior. A) Intermittent explosive disorder : characterized by extreme expressions of anger, often to the point of uncontrolled rage, that are disproportionate to the circumstances in which they occur, which may result in crimes, particularly directed against property and physical integrity. B) : disorder in which the person feels driven to see and produce fire, which can sometimes end in catastrophes that can include the lives of many people. C) Kleptomania : irresistible impulse for the theft of various objects, regardless of whether they are valuable or not. The kleptomaniac does not seek to profit from the theft, he only feels pleasure in doing so.

Bibliographic references:

  • Mendoza Beivide, A.P. (2012). Psychiatry for criminologists and criminology for psychiatrists. Mexico. Editorial Trillas.
  • Núñez Gaitán, M.C.; López Miguel, J.L.(2009). Psychopathology and crime: Implications in the concept of guilt. Electronic Journal of Criminal Science and Criminology (online). 2009, No. 11-r2, p. r2:1 -r2:7. Available on the Internet: http://criminet.ugr.es/recpc/11/recpc11-r2.pdf