Psychology and Law

Psicología y Derecho

The overall objective of this study is to analyze the importance of the application of the psychological autopsy technique in doubtful homicide and suicide cases that occurred in Montería, during the period from 2010 to 2015 in order to answer the following questions: How often was the PA technique applied on these cases during the period mentioned above? And as a result: How objective are the criminal investigations? The methodology is part of the qualitative paradigm, specifically by reviewing the literature about PA techniques, supported by surveys which were applied to staff members from the Monteria´s sectional of the Office of the Attorney General of Colombia, Criminal Courts conformed by criminal judges, Sectional Councils of the Judiciary, and the School of Criminal Investigation and Forensic Sciences, all of the above made up the population and sample of this study. The mentioned analysis finally led to the conclusions that appear at the end of this article. The theoretical body of this analysis is supported by the theories of complexity by Edgar Morín and the transdiciplinarity of the criminal law. Therefore, for the legal framework, was used as reference, the Ruling T- 708/10 emitted by the Colombian Constitutional Court. Finally, as a result of this study, it was found that the PA, despite of being an effective instrument of criminology and forensic medicine, it is not currently applied at Monteria due to the authorities’ lack of knowledge and lack of policies for its application.