(Do not) Believe a Lie!

“In my mind there is a crime!” In homicidal cases it is a sole truth. The evil intent is present in every single mind at daily basis, I believe some of us had a thought or two “I’d really kill her for what she did”. When it is only thinking it is fine, but, there are various brutal and unpredictable personality traces that do exactly opposite, the kill is an implement and leave a dead body behind.  Believe me or not, we will never truly understand the criminal mind, we may try to follow a certain pattern of thinking, yet, the whole biochemical and behavioral one is still out there. There are as many murders as so many personalities, more complex personality is more sordid the murder becomes. Some forensic psychiatrists believe it is an underpinning from or of our past and puberty period. Notwithstanding the circumstances, the thought of crime is a harbinger of it. Personality is a mystery, a unique diversification of thoughts, images, dreams and disappointments, surprisingly bad experiences more avidly shape our demeanor, whereas good ones are treated as a reward, we call it “good luck”. 

Why do we kill? Why the crime happens? According to some experts One likes it, feels irresistible urge to hurt someone, to kill. The visible and palatable  pain makes him proud of, gives pleasure and satisfaction. Every aspect of evil is rooted deeply into our consciousness and sub consciousness. Puberty determines our future behavior,  it is our background and environment we live in.

The crime starts innocently:

“ I had enough, she started yelling as usual. I didn’t want to hurt her, just give her a lesson. Look, I know her inside out, she starts again and again, there’s no big deal, I punched her, she punched me back, I know how you look at things, but believe me, all falls into place. May I go? How is she?

-                        No, You cannot, she is dead.”

We do not know how powerful verbal articulation may be, small, insignificant arguments lead to demise. When tragedy happens, the guilt comes as last, the lie comes first, for the law-enforcement member one glimpse at the crime scene or a victim (at the crime scene or in the hospital) gives almost a clear picture of what happened. We know You lie, yet, You do not know we already know more than You think. The law-enforcement team has to cope with endless excuses, false testimonies, terrible lies, the accused do not understand that something ones done is undone. You cannot and will not change the past. What is a shame?

 “… A sentiment which above all is a feeling of wanting to disappear from disapproving eyes …”

-          Very often we see victims which were deprived of their eyeballs.  The killer wants to hide its own image, so he or she pulls the victim’s eyeballs out. Modern forensic psychiatry called it an act of guilt, of shame. Some believe it is an act of escapism which makes the murderer an invisible man.

Murderer's personality reflects various aspects of morality. The inhibition to acknowledge guilt and admit: “Yes, I did it”. Morality as a state of being must be evaluated.

This peculiar scientific notion was examined by various noble philosophers, I will start form Immanuel Kant, the Kantian definition of morality is  quite a thing. A human agent is treated as both of something cosmic and universal, as an individual at the same time. Kant has got a conception of Us as rational beings, ‘reasonable beings’. He describes Our nature, the one we are capable of. Namely We do act on reason, Kant describes Our capability of acting on Reason and on Principle. There is also a feature of Us – some kind of Echo. Notion that we are capable of failing on Our reason and Our Will. However what we win against out reason and will is a site of potential conflict between Reason on one hand – which comes from Us but is universal for all rational beings, and Personal Inclinations. Somewhere between this concept of morality the guilt is hidden and quietly goes on. According to Kant:

-          it is within Us;

-          it is Universal:

-          it is contagious interest, we may have it inborn or we were trained as children to be kind, to be loyal  to our parents, friends … etc.

The authority of morality is something We cannot get rid out of Our personality,  it is brought to Our control, the control of individual agent which/ who is described as notion of responsibility. He or She bears issues of luck which are accidental consequences. The motive is a duty, these are notions of Pure Reason, the domain of ‘I see it, I judge it, so it is right’.

We act on reason morally, Kant explains it by making two significant shifts, namely,  on one hands he says that guilt is only ever appropriated when the action concerns not Your voluntary control. The voice of consciousness, so-called self-criticism is identified as something individual, exceptional only to one particular agent, We may dare to say it is voice of God. Both of those inflections create an object of criticism, it is the freedom of the will. And this Will might be defined as Morality which appears of temporary deliverance and universal force.

Bearing in mind that Kant was Christian, he didn’t condemn the God, he simply didn’t rely on Him as Universal truth. The Christian point of view didn’t run out. Kant underlines that there is something wrong with the agent. It predominance the feeling of guilt. From guilt emerges blame and it is the whole image of morality.

Sigmund Freud presents a different approach of guilt as a precursor of notion of Id and Ego he gives Us a sensational image of Our mind, according to Him the guilt dominates Our mind. Why does it happen? It is a development of natural question of moral values, it is already there, construction of internal voice. We do hear the internal voice which tells Us ‘do it’ and we truly do what we hear. It is out there in Our mind. It is internalization of moral values. Internalization of an external figure of Authority. It tells a particular story of how the interior voice triggers Us to act. Freud tends to describe the most authoritative voice – the voice of the Father – the father tells Us what must or mustn’t be done. The Father represents Authority and Wisdom. The balance between those two is crucial and important. Sometimes We stand against the voice of authority. Yes it is indispensable to create a law and order from which emerges the image of lawful society.

Freudian concept explains human natures which is complex, thus, this is human nature to listen and to obey, to expose one another to cruelty. And this cruelty is an onset of something much more terrible – a crime.

Frederick Nietzsche focuses Our attention on contrast of sensibility, he also looks for roots of morality and he finds it in a French notion of  rancoeur. It is His definition of Christian moral sensibility. Noble class is not prone to feel is, is not prone to notice a sin and guilt eventually.  

Shame and guilt are the feelings of rational reason, shame brings moral content, and shows lack of responsibility. Lack of responsibility and shame are definition of guilt. The critique must be outspokenly shown, One must be learnt  what compassion is, one simply must feel compassion.

“It is undeniably true that celebrities, high level management, CEOs, politicians, people of power and money are of the lower morality ever, they deny everything. During an ongoing investigation We are restless to prove one thing: the guilt! Believe me nailing a criminal is difficult but nailing a cop! Mother of Gods give me strength! They all act on lies, and a lie is a house of cards built on shaky foundations. Sooner or later it collapses.”

The Police use forensic psychiatry to determine an answer of a short question: Why? The special interest are the problems related to the courtroom testimonies. Occasionally in unusual and complicated deaths, the psychiatrist play a significant role before the trial begins or before the defendant is actually apprehended. Psychiatric evidence in the courtroom is proceeded by through the examination of the suspect to evaluate his or her mental health, so the competency of the accused and his or her ability to stand trial is determined. The behavioral disorders are also taken into account, the most significant ones are:

-          acute hallucinations;

-          lack of individual adaptation;

-          hysterical behavior and emotional instability;

-          paranoia;

-          schizophrenia.

Criminal insanity is a legal status based on intent and free will of a person, the insanity of a person is determined and proved by the following questions:

-          Was the accused suffering from a defect of reason resulting from a disease of the mind?

-          Did the accused know the nature of the act?

-          Did the accused know the quality of the act?

-          Did the defendant at the time of  committing the unlawful act know that he or she was doing wrong?

There are wrong and legal wrong acts which are prescribed to conscious intent - ‘irresistible impulse’.

To determine how wrong the act had been many jurisdictions do so-called – ‘irresistible impulse tests’. This tests reveals that the act is wrong but because of mental illness unavoidable and tend to be committed repetitively. There are certain condition one can or cannot stand trial, the accused cannot be tried unless he or she understands the nature of the crimes committed, she or he must understand the nature of the whole procedures led against. While it is done she or he may assist to its legal defense.  

The major mental disorders are:

-          mental retardation;

-          organic brain syndromes including senile and pre-senile dementia, alcoholic psychosis;

-          psychosis not attributable to physical conditions such as paranoid states, schizophrenia;

-          neurosis;

-          personality disorders: alcoholism, drug dependence; sexual deviations.

The psychiatric examination should be very thorough it goes alongside with the physical one. The family background and the physiology of the person are checked.  

There are some special problems involving forensic psychiatrist:

-          the right of a patient to treatment;

-          the right of a patient to refuse treatment;

-          confidentiality;

-          privileged communication;

-          informal consent;

-          legal regulations of hospital patient care;

-          evaluation of a degree of dangerousness;

-          the prediction of violence;

-          the general rights of the patient.

There is a huge responsibility in reporting a potential danger that poses a problem. The forensic psychiatrist has the important and expending role of providing a thorough expertise which is a major supporting component of the forensic sciences. He or she bears in mind that the whole truth ones claimed to be said appears to be a whole pack of lies. The most mischievous lie lies between two truths, so please do not believe a lie!

Bibliography:

1. Criminal Investigations – Crime Scene Investigation.2000
2. Forensic Science.2006
3. Techniques of Crime Scene Investigation.2012
4. Forensics Pathology.2001
5. Pathology.2005   

Acknowledgements: 

The Police Department; 

https://www.politie.nl/mijnbuurt/politiebureaus/05/burgwallen.html and a Chief Inspector – Mr. Erik Akerboom                                               ©