Forensic Psychology For Dummies (82 page)

Changing the law

At the risk of stating the obvious, crime is what is proscribed by law. Politicians often ignore the fact that crime can be prevented by changing the law so that certain actions are no longer illegal.

One obvious example is the impact of the prohibition on the manufacture or sale of alcohol. Although best known in 1920s America, many countries have had similar laws in the past and some Islamic countries still have prohibition. Such restrictions generate illegal activity because significant proportions of the population don’t regard the activity as criminal. When many people want to do things that they don’t regard as wrong, but which the law prohibits, the result is increased criminal activity.

Here is my list of activities that are illegal in many countries, often attracting very severe penalties, but which many people don’t think of as wrong. You can probably think of others:

Adultery

Exaggerating insurance claims

Prostitution

Smoking marijuana

Smuggling widely-used products, such as cigarettes, to avoid duties

Tax evasion

Under-age drinking

Homosexual acts

Also, of course, many things that are legal for adults are illegal for children. What is a crime if a 14-year-old is involved, isn’t for an adult. In most countries this includes many forms of sexual activity as well as buying cigarettes and alcohol.

The psychological message here is that much criminality is the result of people’s attitude towards the law and their acceptance of it (or not). As I explore in Chapter 2, many criminals seek to exonerate or minimise their illegal activity but they differ from those people who aren’t regarded as criminals within law. In their case there is little distinction existing between them and the population at large.

Of course, most people accept that some form of restriction is necessary on many of these types of activities, otherwise where would the process end? (You may remember the Monty Python sketch in which a pompous ‘expert’ advocates reducing the number of criminal offences to reduce the crime rate: ‘Take arson, for example. Who hasn’t at one time or another burnt down some great public building . . . I know I have!’)

An important aspect of crime prevention is educating the public to understand the reasons for laws being in place and to accept the consequences of breaking those laws.

Using Psychological Understanding to Combat Specific Types of Crime

In this section I take a look at three very different types of crime and show how psychological knowledge and approaches can be invaluable in combating them: hostage-taking, street gangs and organised crime.

Negotiating in hostage situations

The circumstances in which a person is held hostage can quickly turn into the even more serious crime of murder. The handling of hostage situations therefore requires psychological insight into each particular hostage event and the development of negotiation skills that will enable the least destructive conclusion possible.

Identifying types of hostage-taking and kidnapping

Hostage situations fall into three general groups, each of which requires very different psychological approaches:

Siege:
In the UK and US, the most common form of hostage event is one in which a person barricades himself (it’s usually a man) in a room or house with a hostage, often a partner, wife or acquaintance. These hostage-takers are often mentally disturbed, depressed or even psychotic, and so any approach needs to appreciate their special way of seeing the world. Occasionally, such hostage-takers may be so mentally disturbed that they even have to discuss their actions with a non-existent, imaginary person before they respond to any law-enforcement suggestions.