Moral Personality, Prereflexive Inhibition and the Importance of the Process of Internalizing Moral Values

Abstract

This paper aims to highlight the importance of the theory of situational action in criminological research, the description of cumulative risk factors, moral personality and the importance of the process of internalizing moral values. Wikström argues that the moral situation in which the perpetrator finds himself and the criminogenic context influence the process of perception-choice of action alternatives, of the moral decision at the moment of committing the act; acts of violence are therefore moral actions. The perpetrator perceives crime as an alternative course of action. The ordinary individual (socially integrated) does not perceive the crime, does not notice, or even intuit, the alternative of committing the criminal act. This absence of pre-intentional vision should be considered useful in the reintegration treatment of convicts. It is achieved only by internalizing moral norms in the personality of the prisoner. Reintegration represents a reenactment of the moral function. The pre-essentiality of the human being resides in the activation of the moral personality. Prereflexive inhibition removes any form of manifestation of the destructive drive, becomes a psychological barrier, cognitively and emotionally stops the activity of the uncontrollable, instinctive will. In this paper, we analyze from a criminological point of view both sufficient reasons and irresistible reasons in justifying criminal action. KEYWORDS: situational action theory, perception-choice process, prereflexive inhibition, imperative reasons