by Psychotherapist Mertha Mo Nyamande

In all human activities lie psychological explanations, as psychology is generally the study of all human behaviour; whether in positive or negative light. So psychology is about explaining why things happen the way they do. It is very different from psychiatry in that, it does not necessarily diagnose, but assist in the diagnosis of certain behavious. There are presentations that psychiatry may struggle to diagnose without the supportive evidence of psychological assessments, but never the other way around.

This series is going to explore some current and popular events in the criminal and justice spaces which fall under the area of a specialised branch of psychology – Forensic Psychology. Forensic psychology focuses on the criminology as well as the victimology aspects, as these two walk hand in glove. There are very few crimes that have no victim. We have seen and heard of the heinous Makore duo that was recently sentenced to death following the killing of a minor who was then decapitated. This sentence has been met with mixed reactions from the family and the community, and as well as criticisms from international organisations who saw this ruling as illegal and against human rights – the right to life to life in particular – one may question of the right to life of the victim. What is missing however, from this and most such cases (muvhevhe, zhantalli, etc) is the psychological perspective that seeks to understand and explain why a human being may behave in such a manner to another. It is not as simple as the stated pursuit of riches, traditional rituals or evil spirits (satanism) as largely purported, but the individual who is driven or motivated to engage in such an activity would be of a certain character or personality. This psychological exploration is often neglected.

It is not easy to take a life, especially of your kith and kin, and as such while that person may present as calm and collected in public spaces, psychology seeks to understand how they think and feel in the privacy of their psyche. This is to gain an understanding of why they may behave in such a manner and what thinkinf they may have used to justify their behaviours. As the adage goes; we judge ourselves by our intentions, but others judge us by our actions. It is easy to condemn an action until we have a full understanding of the intent. Reaching a conclusion without full inoformation is often quite dangerous and can be equally as damaging as the actions we may be trying to condemn. So the psychological aspect seeks to understand the suspects journey through thorough assessment of their intelect, their biological aspects with regards to the neurological functions of their brain, but mostly the psychosocial interactions with others that mey make them see their fellow man as less than human to be eliminated. There are many psychopathological explanations to this regard; from simple paranoia in psychotic presentations that may only be present under certain severe conditions. These may also be explained through psychopathy, where an individual has developed a severe personality disorder that they do not feel any remorse in harming themselves or another.

So all these pathological aspects will need to be explored before we can reach a definitive conclusion that a person is considered “bad or mad”. Such assessments require specialist, and experienced trained personnel in this regard. Reaching such irreversable conclusions as to sentensing one to death without these is likely a miscarriage of justice, in that the ruling would not have explored all the requirements including those that may be considered in life sentensing or even for reparation and correctional aspects for the rest of the society. Zimbabwe has only staarted to train personnel in Forensic Psychology, though this practice has been used in other parts of the world for decades. Such specialised fields of expertise require stringent support from the governments so as to improve on how the people feel that justice is delivered with full information that is available to the informed public. Commentary of such cases from a psychological perspective is aso critical in helping the same public to understand the processes followed. Just focusing on the psychiatric aspect often means a lot would have been lost. Also the use of forensic psychology can also assist the investigators in the profiling of the suspects, thus being more effective in the use of resources.

It is therefore recommended that all serious crimes from sexual offences, armed robberies and hormicides undergo forensic psychological assessments and also serious considerations to be taken for the lives of the victims of those offences, not limited to the immediate victims, but the wider community and country.