Felony Offenses Related to Personality Traits

• Main Author: Ancell, Richard Guy
• Other Authors: Peek, Leon A.
• Format: Others
• Language: English
• Published: North Texas State University 1977
• Subjects: felony offenses; Criminal psychology.; Personality.; Eyseneck Personality Inventory
• Online Access: https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc504397/

The problem with which this investigation is concerned is whether relationships may exist between personality and type of offense in a felon population. The Eysenck Personality Inventory, which measures extraversion-introversion (E), neuroticism-stability (N), and includes a lie scale (L), was used to determine subject's personality traits. Offenses were divided into crimes against persons, crimes against property, and crimes against the morals of the state. Subjects consisted of 751 adult male felons. The product-moment correlation was computed for each offense-variable EPI pair. A negative association between E and crimes against persons, together with a positive association between L and crimes against persons, were found to be statistically significant at the 0.05 level, although quite low. It was concluded that results obtained should be guardedly interpreted in view of the minimal amount of variability accounted for, though of possible value in suggesting future research.