The Criminal Mind

Violent crime, particularly knife crime, is a focus of public debate. But are media reports accurate about the scale and nature of violent crime? This talk will examine some of the common predictors of violence, and how we measure violent crime. We’ll see if the audience has an accurate picture of the scale of violent crime, and then show some approaches (with audience participation, but no harm to anyone) available for the assessment of aggression in individuals. On the basis of my research using such measures, we’ll finish with some conclusions about what makes violent offenders different.

What leads people to commit the most atrocious crime there is: murder? This session will look into where the idea of psychopathy fits into modern understandings of crime. We shall look into why “abnormal” behaviour is labelled psychopathic, and what the core elements are that underpin this mental health disorder. Only then can we consider where this debate is heading, particularly when thinking about serious crime in Britain. We shall look into the relatively new direction of personality disorders that professionals in Britain are using to consider why people behave the way they do.