ABSTRACT
The chapter is in two parts. The first part addresses the problem of criminality. The second part tries to assess whether psychology has anything to say which may help police officers in making practical judgements about offenders. The idea of a criminal type also crops up in the work of those who have sought to link criminal behaviour with body build. There is some recent and perfectly respectable research suggesting that there might be a slight tendency for criminality to run in families. The decision to take no action, to caution or to proceed, is perhaps the most obvious one where a personal theory of crime comes into play. The tension between blame and prediction is a feature of the whole criminal justice process, from cautioning to parole. Probation and supervision orders obviously involve counselling offenders, and psychiatric treatment is one of the conditions which may be attached to a probation order.
