NEW DELHI: Jindal Institute of Behavioural Sciences (JIBS) of O. P. Jindal Global University (JGU) in Sonipat, Haryana recently organised an online post-graduate certificate course to understand and explore criminal behaviour from social, psychological, biological and social perspectives.
About 220 national and international participants attended the three-day postgraduate certificate course on "Understanding Criminal Behaviour".
Students from countries like the UK, Switzerland, Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and the Philippines along with students from across India attended the course.
"The course aimed at developing analytical and conceptual understanding of various facets of criminal behaviour. Sessions elucidated if psychological biases influence members of the criminal justice system and how to ascertain if forensic evidences are telling the truth, " said Professor Sanjeev P. Sahni, Principal Director at Jindal Institute of Behavioural Sciences.
"Participants also discussed about eye witness testimonies, understanding criminal behaviour of serial killers, white collar crime, forensic psychology, domestic violence and the intricacies of cyber crime."
The sessions included key areas such as understanding deceit which discussed how there are about 70 per cent of wrongful convictions each year.
There are many reasons for wrongful convictions such as eyewitness misidentification, bad lawyering, false confessions, and wrongful presentation of forensic evidence, among others.
However, with the advent of technology and progression of psycho-physiological sciences, today it is possible to detect whether a person is providing accurate information or not. Such findings have made their way into the courtroom.
During the course of the programme, JIBS faculty members and research scholars provided insights into different aspects that explored criminological explanations, evaluation of criminal justice agencies and theoretical approaches in understanding how societal and psychological factors influence the criminal mind and co-dependency.