Topic 8. Personality of the criminal

The question of the identity of the offender is one of the most complex, controversial and least developed criminological problems. The significance of this problem is expressed primarily in the fact that a crime as an act of a human act and the will of a particular person is largely derived from his essential characteristics and features. So, we can say that the crime and the offender are those components of the body of crime, the study and knowledge of which can provide criminological material for subsequent work on the prevention of crime.

Isolating the personality of a criminal from the entire mass of people is carried out on the basis of two criteria: legal and social (socio-psychological). Based only on legal criteria, the identity of the criminal can be determined as the person who committed the crime. However, in this judgment one can discern elements of tautology. In addition, this concept of the personality of the criminal has a formal connotation, [7] therefore the legal criterion must, of necessity, be supplemented by a social (socio-psychological) criterion, according to which the personality of the criminal is characterized by one or another degree of antisocial orientation (orientation) or, at least , individual antisocial traits.

This provision applies to persons who have committed not only a malicious, but also a so-called accidental crime, as well as to persons who commit crimes in a state of passion and even through negligence. This also includes persons who have not yet violated the criminal law, but due to antisocial views and habits, manifested, for example, in the form of committing relevant administrative offenses, may take the criminal path. [8] In other words, the subject of criminology includes the personality of the offender, understood in the above sense and including not only the actual persons who committed the crime, but also other categories of persons subject to targeted preventive influence.

In general, data on personal characteristics in relation to both the subjects of all crimes and their individual types contain significant information about the causes of crimes, which can be used in determining measures aimed at preventing new crimes.

The object of criminological study of the identity of the offender are:

▪ individuals committing crimes;

▪ various groups of criminals (minors, repeat offenders);

▪ various criminological types of criminals.

The task of criminology in studying the personality of a criminal is to isolate the range of those characteristics that make it possible to identify causal relationships, causal complexes, chains closest to crime and crime.

The most common in criminology is the allocation of the following groups of signs:

1) socio-demographic;

2) criminal law;

3) social manifestations in different spheres of life (sometimes they talk about social ties);

4) moral properties;

5) psychological signs;

6) physical (biological) features.

Study of social positions, roles and activities of criminals. A person in society occupies a number of positions on which his behavior depends, and plays a number of roles, each of which has its own content - the so-called role script, and the person follows this script.

Differ:

▪ role as a set of normative requirements corresponding to a given position;

▪ role as a person’s understanding of what is required of him and what he intends to perform;

▪ actual performance of the role in specific conditions of place and time.

When studying the personality of a criminal, it is important to determine his social and role status. For example, a person may not occupy those social positions that would allow him to get acquainted with the norms of the state and behave in accordance with the requirements of law and morality (for example, a person is used to resolving conflicts with the use of force). A person can simultaneously occupy positions that are associated with conflicting requirements, norms of behavior, that is, there is a conflict of social positions and roles. A person can take positions that directly dictate illegal, criminal behavior (for example, if he is a member of a criminal group). A person can get into a situation of lack of continuity of roles and positions, as a result of which he will be unprepared to comply with legal norms in accordance with his social position (and this, in turn, entails a violation of labor protection rules, negligence). Finally, a person can occupy one social position, and focus on others; he can get into a situation of conflict between the roles already performed and expected in the future. The criminal behavior of a person in this case may contradict the roles already performed, but be logical from the point of view of referential roles (the conflict between the real and the expected, the present and the future).

The main motives underlying criminal behavior, crime are:

1) socio-political (the mechanism of government and society, participation in management, influence on it, etc.);

2) socio-economic:

▪ satisfaction of vital needs;

▪ satisfaction of “relative” needs that arise in conditions of socio-economic differentiation of the population and people’s comparison of their situation with the situation of others;

▪ achieving one’s ideal - a certain material standard (wealth) or social standard (penetration into the upper strata of society) towards which a given person is oriented;

3) violently selfish (physically and mentally aggressive):

▪ absolutization of the idea of ​​self-affirmation, the realization of existing needs and interests in any form;

▪ self-affirmation in those forms that are possible for a person in specific situations;

4) thoughtlessly irresponsible:

▪ lack of need and interest in correlating one’s actions with existing norms of behavior and the law;

▪ selectivity of such a relationship (for example, only under conditions of strict external control or in communication with those in power, but not with subordinate and unresponsive people).

It should be noted that the term "criminal activity", in contrast to the concept of "criminal behavior", reflects not only the presence of a system of certain criminal acts, but also a purposeful search by a person for social positions, conditions for the implementation of criminal intentions, the development in the process of self-education of qualities that are important specifically for criminal activity.

Value-normative characteristics of consciousness.

The value orientations of a person can be called deep personal characteristics that indicate the most significant objects for the person, valued by her. When studying the identity of the criminal, it was found that in the system of value orientations for such persons, the highest places are occupied by individual or clan-egoistic orientations. Above all, in such cases, there is personal material well-being, unlimited manifestation of one's "I", the creation of the most comfortable conditions for this, or clan, group egoistic interest.

Classification of criminals. The personality of the criminal as a social type. Classification of criminals is carried out using grouping and typology.

Grouping is most often understood as the distribution of a statistical population into certain groups, categories using such a criterion as the statistical prevalence of one or more characteristics.

The most widespread groupings based on:

▪ demographic data (gender, age);

▪ some socio-economic criteria (education, occupation, presence or absence of permanent residence and occupation, residence in urban or rural areas);

▪ citizenship;

▪ the state of the individual at the time of the commission of the crime (intoxication, drug excitement);

▪ the nature of criminal behavior (intentional or careless; primary or repeated).

Typology is a deeper characteristic of different contingents of criminals. It is based on essential features causally associated with criminal behavior. Within the same type, signs-manifestations and signs-causes should be homogeneous; they must reflect certain dynamic patterns, lines of determination, fixed in criminological studies. For example, as signs of a typology, one can use such as committing thefts (sign-manifestation) as a result of a person’s steady orientation to criminal means of ensuring his well-being, his impunity after committing previous crimes due to high criminal professionalism (signs-reasons).

From the end of the XNUMXth century Criminologists distinguish four types of criminal personality. And although different authors call them differently, in fact, they mean the degree of stability and autonomy of a person's criminal behavior in interaction with the social environment. There are such types of criminal personality as:

▪ malicious;

▪ unstable;

▪ situational;

▪ random.

The social type of a criminogenic personality expresses a certain integrity of its personal characteristics. This type is characterized by:

▪ formation of personality in conditions of intense illegal and immoral behavior of others (family, comrades);

▪ in the past - a system of immoral acts and various types of offenses that continued to be repeated even after the adoption of legal measures;

▪ separation from the value-normative system of society and the state;

▪ getting used to a negative assessment of one’s behavior, using socio-psychic self-defense mechanisms;

▪ activity in a situation of committing a crime and, as a rule, committing a crime without sufficiently justified external reasons.

Within the type of criminogenic personality, subtypes are distinguished:

▪ consistently criminal;

▪ situationally criminogenic;

▪ situational.

The sequentially criminogenic subtype is formed in a microenvironment where the norms of morality and law are systematically violated; the crime follows from the habitual style of behavior and is determined by persistent antisocial views, social attitudes and orientations of the subject. As a rule, the situation of committing a crime is actively created by such persons. Representatives of this type are able, if necessary, to adapt a specific environment in their interests, their criminal behavior is relatively autonomous.

The situational-criminogenic subtype is characterized by the violation of moral norms and the commission of non-criminal offenses, improper fulfillment of the requirements of socially acceptable social roles; is formed and acts in a contradictory microenvironment; the crime is largely due to the situation of its commission, which is unfavorable from a socio-economic, moral and legal point of view (stay in a criminal formation, conflicts with other persons). Such a person is led to a crime by his microenvironment and the whole previous way of life, the natural development of which is the situation of the crime.

The situational subtype is characterized by the fact that the immoral elements of the consciousness and behavior of such a person and his microenvironment, if any, are expressed insignificantly. More significant are the defects in the mechanism of interaction between the social environment and the individual in a difficult situation, including as a result of the unpreparedness of the individual for it.

Authors: Vasilchikova N.V., Kukharuk V.V.

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