When I teach criminal psychology at various universities, I notice that many students say that they want to know why people start committing crimes.Also, when the first news of a murder case comes in, I often hear commentators with "knowledgeable faces" on TV programs saying, "The focus is on clarifying the motives in arresting the criminal."However, it is almost impossible for ordinary citizens to "get involved" in violent crimes such as robbery and murder.
In Japan, there are approximately 1 known general criminal offenses per year (75), of which murder accounts for 2019% (police white paper).
Even including violent crimes such as robbery and forced sexual intercourse, the percentage of violent offenders is less than 1% of all criminal offenses.In the first place, is there such a thing as a ``motive for murder'' that ``for such a reason, there is no point in killing the victim''?
In peaceful Japan, there are almost no motives that would make it unavoidable to commit murder.
Criminals' motives for committing crimes are based on extremely selfish and short-sighted ideas.
I myself have been involved in criminal investigations for nearly 30 years, and I often wondered if I would kill someone.
Even if you hate someone enough to want to kill someone, 99% of people don't commit murder.This is because in modern society, especially in Japan, where public safety is good, there is a high sense of norms that crimes should not be committed, and people who are familiar with the risks of being arrested as a criminal and the amount of things they will lose. because there is
On the other hand, a common personality among criminals is low self-control.If you are a normal person, even if you want something, you will work, save money, and wait for a while before you finally get it.However, the motive that many robbery-murderers say is, "I wanted money that I could use immediately."
Also, revealing a motive is not a determining factor in guilt in a court of law.For example, in the 1998 Wakayama poisoned curry case, the Supreme Court confirmed the death sentence while the defendant's motives remained "unexplained."
In modern criminal investigations, objective analysis of a crime and the collection of physical evidence are the decisive factors in arresting the criminal.If we can find something that leads to DNA-type identification through on-site forensics, we will eventually and surely be able to find the only real criminal on the planet.It is no longer the time to rely on the experience and intuition of veteran detectives to "read the plot".
Over the past decade or so, much of the knowledge gained from psychology has been introduced into the interrogation of suspects. It has become a matter of course.As a result, the old-fashioned banging on the desk and yelling at the suspect forcing him to confess is gone, and the confession after feeding him katsudon is more likely to result in a police officer being charged with "facilitation." It will be broken.
Today, criminal profiling at the investigative stage provides a clear picture of the perpetrator, and polygraph examination using physiological indicators is a common practice in forensics before the start of interrogation.You can't participate in a modern criminal investigation without learning criminal psychology.
In the "Investigative Psychology" class at Kansai University of International Studies, general students are taught about full-scale interrogation, similar to what police officers learn at the National Police Academy, including the above.Determination of motives, said Wideshow commentators, does not lead to the arrest or conviction of criminals.If you study criminal psychology at this school, it's normal that you stop saying such amateurish things.
