Analysis of social and psychological theories of the causality of serial crimes

The article reveals the algorithm for evaluating the research value of individual causality theories of serial crimes. Despite the fact that the theories under consideration have both theoretical and practical significance, each of them has strong and weak aspects. Analysis of these aspects was the aim of the study. The result of the study was an analysis of the advisability of applying social and psychological theories of causality to serial crimes. In the conducted research, the following general scientific methods were used: analysis, synthesis and system-structural one. The following private-science methods were used in the study: biographical, statistical, comparative-historical analyses and expert evaluation. Among the factors useful for determining the value of the theory of causality of serial crimes, the following criteria of analysis were assigned: the content of the theory; the typical image of a serial criminal, resulting from the content of the theory; theoretical consistency and value; practical value and scope; empirical validity; strengths of the theory; weaknesses of the theory; political and doctrinal bias; current state and development prospects. These criteria were used in the content analysis of a group of social and psychological theories of the causality of serial crimes. This group includes such well-known social theories as the feminist theory, the theory of subcultures, the theory of myth, and such psychological theories as the theory of personal destruction (psychotrauma) and the theory of evolution. The feminist theory explains the criminal behavior of serial criminals as the absolutization of the spirit of aggressiveness inherent in men. The theory of subcultures emphasizes the existence of social strata possessing a system of social behavior and values that exists separately from the dominant system of behavior and values. The theory of myth develops the thesis about the conspiratorial nature of separating serial crime as a method of social control of the population. The theory of personal destruction (psychotrauma) presupposes the existence in the structure of the psyche of a serial criminal of the destructive effects of psychotrauma obtained in childhood, as a rule. The theory of evolution is based on the idea that the behavior of serial criminals is not a manifestation of their degenarality, but reflects specific evolutionary changes in the psyche. One of the main ideas is the thesis about the targeting of each theory of causality of serial crimes.

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