CHARMI VAISHNAV | A Criminal offence when committed, it includes Actus Reus and Mens Rea. Where Actus Reus means a physical act of a person and Mens Rea points out a guilty mind, both when united makes crime, either of these doesn’t make the crime as only a physical act of a person without an intention to commit crime i.e. person without guilty mind cannot be said to commit an act against the law, thus both the aspects must be present at the time of the crime.
Tumble to the causes which made a person to do a particular act? Or why the person develops the mindset of the criminal? We can observe that behind every crime there lie theories of crime and so as to clarify it many researchers have classified these theories which includes Sociological theory of crime, Biological theory of crime and Psychological theory of crime. The primary enigma is that, what is the psychological eyesight towards the criminal act. There is requirement of psychological component to be examined when the crime has been committed. Interpretation of the mind of the criminal plays vital role when the proceedings are going on. The main focus of psychological aspect is reason or thought behind the act. There are such a lot of motives for which a person commits a crime.
Psychodynamic approach of Crime
It is observed that a man survive both physically and psychically. He must maintain a certain psychic equipoise lest he lose the capacity to perform. A person’s behavior reflects his maturity level, what is his idea about the crime. Within the concept of Psychodynamic theory, which was start off by Sigmund Freud (1856-1939)–founding father of psychoanalysis he stated that an individual’s mental evolution starts from the boy hood, from where he starts to learn and his growth for the good and evil things. When there is something happened in childhood, it often drawn in a person’s mind (whether conscious or subconscious) and ended up having frustration, depression, anxiety, revenge thinking and anger issues in future, which is the chief reason by which most of the youth or adolescent indulge themselves in crime. For instance, a child whose mother has been victim of the force from his paternal side will develop aggressive intent towards them.
Case Study
As we see in the case of Wright vs. United States, where Wright was charged with the fatal shooting of his wife, the time lag between his accusation and his absolute conviction is due to his mental condition. The Judge in this case ordered to scrutinize the mental health of Wright and the doctors marked that he was suffering from the disease called Schizophrenia which is a disorder that affects the person’s ability to think, feel and behave clearly and it can’t come and go overnight. In total five out of eleven psychiatric who examined him said that it’s because of his illness the act has been done. The rule of M’Naghten should have been applied which identify if the accused of a criminal offence is at the time of the committing it is sound or not? As a result, it is used to test the criminal insanity of the accused. We can also learn it in the case of Kumari Chandra vs. State in which Kumari Chandra had pushed two boys and one girl into the well and that out of three, two have been pulled out of the well and one boy could not be traced. In the defense of this offence committed by her she had proved that at that time she was undergoing with mental syndrome known as premenstrual stress syndrome and she used to become violent few days prior to menstrual and as per Section 84 of the Indian Penal Code nothing is an offence which is done by a person who, at the time of doing it, by reason of unsoundness of mind, is incapable of knowing the nature of the act, or that what he is doing is either wrong or contrary to law. The Court referred to the statements given by experts and Doctors which also states that women do not stay normal throughout premenstrual stage during some days earlier to menstrual and become quite aggressive. In those circumstances, there are chances that they may become violent and also sometimes commit suicide. It is also testified that they are differentiated by two types of symptoms, physical and psychological, in psychological symptoms there may be frustration, depression, abnormal behavior, tendency of suicide, tendency of violence, tendency of causing beating to children etc. These mental and bodily conditions are beyond the control of woman. Hence, she was able to attest her defense that at the time of occurrence she was laboring under a fault of reason caused by premenstrual stress syndrome. Further it’s studied in the case of Durham vs. United States the criminal was responsible for his act on account of his poor mental health but the Judge in this case examined the expression of who best can be put off by sentence and who best can be kept by healing and therefore the adjudicator discusses in terms of whom we will be able to appropriately found guilty. But the genuineness is that the complexity goes to the heart of whatever we prefer to build our principle in unlawful punishment and ultimately a psychiatric predicament.
Science of Criminology
As quoted by Roche that the criminals are not observant about their disposition, it is the outcome of their impeccable compulsion and it can be explained as the subjective justification which exist only in the minds of those who talks about it. It tries to explain about the contradiction amidst legal and psychiatric. Abramson D. also opened up about the psycho-analytical process that the one must look deep in to the human individuality to get the unconscious decisiveness of the human nature, including behavior.
Human Behavior and unlawful offence
The human tendency towards the various matter of fact drives the person to behave in a certain way. Fear of something is the bumpiest feeling for a person and an individual do more or less everything to terminate it. Out of all the fears, the menace to his liberty somehow got the exceptional importance. Since the freedom is considered as an overall growth of a person there is inborn urge in a human to fight for the freedom for his well mental being. Hence, fright to his independence led a person to the violent behavior. The criminal behavior of a person is enormously intricate, yet poorly understood phenomenon.
To interpret these in depth let us converse about the recent incident took place in India that the renowned actor, late Shushant Singh Rajput who had committed suicide which is directly associated with the psychological changes of human nature which unconsciously happen in our conscious mind and which left us in a ponder that how thought about ending our life comes in a person’s mind, like he is giving up on each and every dilemma comes in a life and left the human race like this. What made a person to do such gesture? What are the conflicts that occur in human brain which ended up to committing a crime like this? It can be clearly clarified with a thought that “When a man is denied the right to live the life he believes in, he has no choice but to become outlaw. – Nelson Mandela”
Conclusion
Psychological stability of a person is important and The Federal psychosis defense now demands the defendant to provide evidence, by obvious and persuasive facts that at the time of the commission of the act makes up felony, the defendant, as a consequence of a severe psychological sickness or deficiency, was incapable to realize the character and worth or the illegitimacy of his acts. There are four rules offered for the psychosis are the M’Naghten test, the irresistible-impulse test, the Durham rule and the Model Penal Code test. To fight with the trouble like this there be supposed to make some law or to made some changes in the law which is helpful to come across the interpretation of the minds of criminals or at least they’ve given chance to prove that anything wrong committed is due to their psychological health. Such as there should be some methods to understand the mindset of the criminals before them documented them as the criminals. Besides this it is furthermore accurate that today’s human has the gloomy face that loves wrong and violent behavior. We all may try to deny that but the actuality is that the current civilization in fact can be referred as most brutal civilization in times gone by in the quantity of offenses committed and in the nature viciousness. It can amuse so as scared us. He doesn’t judge that what he performed was immoral. At very last I feel like to adjoined illustrious lines – “There is no crime in anyone’s blood any more than there is goodness blood of others. Criminals are not born. They are made by hunger, want and injustice “– Khuswant Singh
You have to grow from the inside out. None can teach you, none can make you spiritual. There is no other teacher but your own soul
Swami Vivekanand
Charmi Vaishnav is a student of L A Shah Law College, Ahmedabad. She can be reached at charmivaishnav9@gmail.com
Photo Source- Frontiers
Cup of Court 