PSYCHO-CRIMINOLOGY
On 14th and 15th of September, I attended a training course on psycho-criminology in Rennes, given by Astrid Hirschelmann, and entitled “Analysis and Treatment of the Criminal Phenomenon.”
Astrid Hirschelmann is a Psychologist and University Professor in Caen, with more than 20 years of experience in psycho-criminology.
In her introduction, she insists on the hyphen between the word “psycho” and the word “criminology” because criminology contains several fields of study (biological, social, medical, legal…) and not only psychology. By the term “psycho” one must understand “psychism” and not “psychopathology.” Indeed, all those who acted out were not affected by psychopathological disorders, on the contrary, there is even no direct link between delinquency and mental disorder.
The objects of interest of psycho-criminology are crime, deviance and marginality. According to some authors, these three components are useful and even necessary in every society, it creates a regulation at the individual but also collective level. Consequently, psycho-criminology is also about social norms (which are not always legal norms).
The first part of the training was devoted to the main concepts and principles of criminology in a historical and sociological dimension. To this end, we have mentioned the contributions of Cesare Beccaria (“Des délits et des peines”), Michel Foucault (“Surveiller et punir”), the contributions of Durkheim – the anomie – as well as the contributions of psychoanalysis – the unconscious crime – and theories of the complexity elaborated by Edgar Morin.
Thus, we were led to consider the evolution of a point of view which was at first deterministic and dehumanizing (with focus on the act and not on its author) to more human practices that have allowed to individualize the criminal sanction.
Indeed, by studying more particularly the authors of crime, we acknowledge that we have moved over the years from the “born criminal” concept (endogenous determinism) to the “crazy criminal” one (medical determinism, psychiatric one). In both cases it prompts us to assess the dangerousness in a permanent way: once a criminal, always a criminal. This remains a current issue: assessing the dangerousness of criminals is still a major imperative in the court proceedings, especially since the application of the law on preventive detention (“détention de sûreté” in French).
According to some authors, the ideal would be that the sentence can evolve with the defendant in order to help him to become subject of his history, to work progressively on his acting out. The access to counseling in prisons should then be facilitated for that purpose. Judicial time is not psychic time, it often takes a while to overcome the denial and, step by step, take responsibility.
How to explain acting out? Astrid Hirschelmann exposed several hypotheses through literature: from the personality of the defendant, his structure (especially during decompensation), psychopathy, perversion. The acting out scene will be colored by these elements. Nevertheless, we are invited not to forget that these elements are not causal, they only contribute to the causal chain. Criminal etiology, or criminogenesis, consists of individual, social, biological, psychological, and/or mesological factors.
The different contexts of the individual must be taken into account: the pre-criminal period, the modus operandi and the post-criminal period. The acting out is described as a personal position that was made impossible. Thus, modes of redevelopment have required the construction of an author-victim couple. The “act-author-victim” trio is in turn influenced by vectors of the external and internal reality, all of which must be taken into account in the evaluation of the defendant and in the elaboration of his care plan (“Programme de soins” in French).
Finally, Astrid Hirschelmann introduced to us the care devices towards the “desistance.” The concept of “desistance” mixes the words “withdrawal” (“désistement” in French) and “delinquency” (“délinquance” in French): it is the exit way of delinquency. These past decades, after the “Nothing works” way of thinking came the “What works?” one, which is based on the analysis of the risks, needs and receptivity of the defender (Risk-Need-Receptivity model – RNR) to support change better. Nowadays, there are several tools, that we have explored together, that help to point out who to work with first (everyone does not need to go to the psychiatrist/psychologist), what to work on for each one, and how to help the person concerned to be more receptive. To these figures are added, of course, the feelings and judgments of the professionals and also of the defendant, which must also be taken into account to adjust the care plan at any time.
To conclude, we realized that psycho-criminology is a very wide topic which seems to be very trendy, as we were more than 600 participants during these two days. More training courses will be scheduled next year in order to satisfy the increasing interest on this matter.
Key words: psycho-criminology, crime, delinquency, acting out, assessment.
Words I have learned :
Hyphen: tiret
To act out: passer à l’acte
To assess: évaluer
To prompt to: inciter à
The defendant: l’accusé
Court proceeding: procédure judiciaire
Fanny AMET