Psychological Language in the Criminal Law and the National Constitution of Argentina

Abstract

The aim of this study is to promote a further understanding concerning the discursive interaction between two disciplines, psychology and law. For this a descriptive study was conducted. a linguistic computer algorithm was applied to analyze the proportion of psychological words in legal texts such as argentine Criminal Codes and the National Constitution of Argentina. Two empirical hypotheses were tested. the results of the first hypothesis suggest that the proportion of psychological words is higher in Criminal Codes than in the Constitution. the results of the second hypothesis suggest that the proportion of psychological words related to cognitive mechanisms are higher than the proportion of other psychological words related to feelings, emotions, anxiety, anger and insight. the general discussion focuses on the relationship between psychology and the theory of Crime. Finally, some related topics are proposed for future research.