Social and psychological aspects of personal criminalization in law enforcement officers

Abstract

We present a study of psychological laws of personal criminalizing situations. The empirical material was gathered in 2008–2011 years in Ryazan region among prisoners who were ex-law enforcement officers. Study sample comprised 100 people. The tasks were performed using complex of methods, including authors’ modified of several testing methods. The hypothesis concerned conditionality of perception and analysis by individual the situation of its criminalization, caused by substantial and structural features of personality constructs and attributive mechanisms. The hypothesis was confirmed at tendency level. This allowed to specify the notions of psychological mechanisms of personal criminalization. The significance of the study is determined by the development of proven integrated approach to the diagnosis of a psychological nature and mental representation of interaction situation between an individual and the environment.

Keywords

• interaction of personality and situation
• attributive processes
• conflicting reality
• behavior in a legal situation
• psychological mechanisms of personality criminalization
• situational variables
• subjective interpretation of a legal situation