Pinel’s chains: consideration on reflexivity in the field of criminology and forensic psychiatry

Abstract

Aim of this work is to critically outline the recent updates in the field of criminology, criminal justice and forensic psychiatry. More specifically the most important criminal justice and forensic psychiatric innovations will be discussed from the point of view of the general and cultural transformation of our times.In first place the most important recent criminal policies will be analyzed, particularly the politics of damage reduction, public safety and risk management. Subsequently the most important theories serving as foundations of such options of criminal policy will be analyzed, particularly those connected to the idea of risk reduction and situational prevention, both in preventive and in sentencing practices as a way of incapacitating offenders.Secondarily, thecontemporary parameters of actuarial evaluation in forensic psychiatry will be assessed and discussed critically, in particular way the general schemata of the official psychiatric diagnostic categorization(that of the DSM), and its presumed a-theoreticity and a-causality; then, the psychiatric-forensic interview and the relative diagnosis will be criticized: some psychiatric aspects of violent and juvenile crimes will be considered as examples of a diagnostic opacity that inevitably puts in discussion the methodology of “official” diagnosis, based on actuarial tools. Some suggestions will be advanced about structuring an hermeneutic approach to the psychiatric (and consequently forensic psychiatric) evaluation and treatment of the criminally insane (reflexive criminology).