An interview of the detective Pelekasi Nikos in the newspaper “Pontiaki Gnomi”.

One of the common topics of discussion after the publicity of the actions of criminals that shock public opinion is the debate between the innate or not innate tendency to criminality. This debate is a constant concern for the scientific community, police, justice system, as well as for everyday people, both as observers and as victims of criminal acts. It is a fact that the heinous crimes that often occur around us worry us all.

But what is the point of this controversy? For the vast majority of citizens, the benefit in answering the question is not so much to hold the perpetrator responsible or to absolve them. But in the investigation surrounding a criminal act, profiling the perpetrator is important in predicting possible future actions of an apprehended, released or paroled offender. If this tendency is innate, then there is a stronger likelihood that this individual will reoffend, repeat the same or similar crimes with little variation in tactics. If this tendency was created later in the individual’s life, the likelihood of recidivism is reduced. Numerous studies have demonstrated that the earlier in a person’s life the transition to criminal activity occurs, the more likely it is that the criminal tendency will be maintained over the years.

Criminal propensity : innate or acquired tendency?

But when does the criminal activity start? Studies of prison populations have shown that for 75% of them delinquency is imprinted in their personality. Only 25% are people who did not have such a tendency but rather broke the law due to circumstances (e.g. homicides in the heat of the moment, out of necessity, misfortune, honour crimes). For the great mass of criminals the creation of a tendency to offending can be detected at an early age, up to the age of 14-15. Minor delinquency, systematic violation of the rights of others, lack of remorse for these actions and conscious violation of the moral code in the early years of life reveal a path to delinquency in adulthood, which varies in nature, intensity and duration according to these early steps.

But is there an innate tendency towards crime?

Indeed, the identification of the onset of delinquency in childhood is linked to family and social environments that promote violence as a method of settling the two individual differences. For a very small group of offenders, however, this tendency is innate. This has been documented through anthropological studies between peace-loving and non-peace-loving Central American indigenous populations. Even in pacifist societies, where paid use of violence is absent to rule out the influence factor in the birth of the tendency to crime, there was even a very small percentage of individuals who systematically turned to committing offenses.

But how does all this benefit an investigation? Knowing the detailed profile of criminals helps to identify their possible next steps. For example, the profile of individuals differentiates them in terms of the stages of passage to criminal activity, photographing with relative accuracy the time frame for the method of a future criminal act.

In any case, and contrary to the common trend of attributing or not attributing responsibility, the study of an offender’s profile is not involved in administering justice but in better designing tactics to more successfully issue an investigation and protect future victims through case resolution.