Question: what goes through a criminals brain and is it a mental health issue rather than a problem?

Alex Reid answered on 14 Nov 2018:

Hi Jemma, this is a great question and the application of psychology to our legal system is a very complicated area, both morally and philosophically. While it not my area I will still have a go at answering your question. At it’s core our legal system is designed to hold people accountable for their behavior but there are certain situations where people are deemed mentally unfit to stand trial. This is usually the case where someone has committed a crime while having a serious psychological problem (such as, say, a severe schizophrenic episode) that removes their responsibility for their actions. In these cases the individual will be hospitalized. Things get a bit murkier because some criminals will have things such as anti social personality disorder, an actual condition, that can make them predisposed to committing crimes (or at least antisocial behavior). In most cases these individuals still be considered responsible for their behavior and charged under the law. You will also get people without any mental health conditions who have committed crimes through things such as circumstance, poor choices or negligence (to name but a few). As I said this is a really complex area and I don’t know a huge amount about it, but I hope this gives you a rough idea of some of the application of psychology to criminal law.