Main themes

To respect the psychological outlook, the course focuses upon criminal behavior.

The term behavior refers to the complexity which the evolution of psychology obliges us to give to the term: the importance and the number of the variables from which behavior can be explained and given meaning. This is true for criminal behavior as it is for other behaviors.

On the other hand, the term criminal refers to both an attack on social values (whence the problem of man and the law) and a reading program (or a definition) from which the subject is viewed and reconstructed.

The course examines these problem areas, with the emphasis on the various theoretical developments which have shaped criminal psychology, inter alia: the concept of personality, psychological processes involved in various crimes, the importance of self-image and of the process of identification, the relations of the subject confronted with the law, the concept of dangerousness, etc.

Content and teaching methods

Practical exercises are organized to complement the lecture portion.

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