NOTES ON DIAGNOSIS IN CRIMINAL MATTERS

Abstract

The article is devoted to correct diagnosis in criminal matters. The author analyzes the problems related to the transition from academic criminology to the practice of justice and institutions executing judicial decisions (prison service, probation officers, etc.). The author indicates diagnostic difficulties resulting from the complexity of various criminogenic factors, as well as the impossibility of covering them with a deep examination. Their effect is the low precision of most diagnoses prepared in practice. This makes it difficult to determine an adequate criminal response to crime, in particular the choice of appropriate penalties and penal measures. However, the most important reason for the difficulty to diagnose is the factor of the free choice of man in the criminogenesis (homo eligens). It is visible in the decision to commit a crime or its absence in response to a specific situation. This factor is very difficult to examine. The author discusses the theses of so-called humanist criminology, which attempts to explain the role of human free will in the genesis of crime. In conclusion, the author emphasizes that the courts act to a large extent in a schematic way. They focus on the greatest number of decisions and judgments as possible. In everyday practice, there is no time for a deep intellectual reflection. It is sufficient to apply proven simplified schemas and the same diagnostic tools, to analyze and evaluate standard risk factors. At the end of the article the author draws the final conclusion that academic criminology is useful for the average judge, the probation officer or the prison educator to a limited extent.