Abstract: China was one of the world's leading countries that made significantcontributions to criminal psychology in ancient times. studies onhistorical classics such as Shangshu (The Book of History), Shi (TheBook of Songs), Zhouyi (The Book of Changes). This paper probes intothe concepts of criminal* psychology in Shang and Western Zhoudynasties (c. 16th century-771 B.C.) in four areas: (1) Causes that leadto criminal behaviour and prevention of crime through psychologicalmethods, (2) Psychology in the judicial process, (3) Penalty psychologyand (4) Psychology of confessed prisoners.

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