Вісник Харківського національного університету внутрішніх справ (Jul 2023)

Concept, subject and method of legal psychology

  • N. M. Demidenko,
  • T. L. Bilous

DOI
https://doi.org/10.32631/v.2023.2.62
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 101, no. 2 (Part 2)
pp. 317 – 323

Abstract

Read online

A conclusion has been drawn according to which the subject matter of legal psychology is: peculiarities of mental processes during entry and participation of a person in social and legal relations of the relevant sectoral affiliation; peculiarities of influence on the emotional and sensual states of a person of certain legal facts and legally significant events; the process of perception of legal reality by a person, awareness of the rights and obligations granted to him/her, ways and procedure for their implementation, etc.; organisation of a person's behaviour as a participant in social and legal relations. The method of legal psychology has been described as a system of special theoretical and practical tools, methods and measures which allow analysing the components of the subject of legal psychology, studying their regularities and formulating reasonable conclusions and scientific concepts on this basis. It has been found out that legal psychology is the science of mental, emotional, and sensual states of a person in terms of his/her participation in legal relations as a subject of law who exercises the relevant rights and performs the duties assigned to him/her. It has been noted that legal psychology is inextricably linked to psychology in general as a science of a person and his/her inner world, but is limited to the issues related to law. At the same time, the attention is focused on the need for a broad understanding of the subject matter of legal psychology, since legal psychology studies only those social relations which are regulated by law. It was emphasised that the range of such relations may be extended to include those relations, phenomena and processes which are not directly related to law or legal relations, but which may be of scientific interest to lawyers due to their impact, for example, on the personality of a criminal, determinants of crime, and understanding of a crime victim.

Keywords