NCJ Number
78567
Journal
Advances in Behavior Research and Therapy Volume: 2 Dated: (1980) Pages: 159-177
Date Published
1980
Length
19 pages
Annotation
A total of 201 patients on criminal wards at a Canadian mental hospital were administered a battery of psychological tests to develop a psychological description of criminal patients and to explore its relationship to criminal behavior and etiology.
Abstract
The personality factors derived from the test battery were anxiety, assertiveness, self-assuredness, realism, mobilization, stolidness, objectivity, inhibition, and passiveness. Among the patients grouped by cluster analysis, primary psychopaths and overcontrolled patients were higher on realism, mobilization, and objectivity. Low inhibition along with assertiveness and mobilization were associated with 'crimes without deterrents' and high inhibition (plus stolidness, low mobilization, and low realism) with 'crimes of passion.' Discriminant analyses for crimes correctly classified about 65 percent of patients, but for more infrequent crimes, there were twice as many false positives as actual offenders. At 1-, 2-, and 3-year followups, recidivists showed more stolidness and more subcultural conformity. Violent recidivists were less expressive than other groups. The author suggests that frontal-temporal impairments show decrements in assertiveness and realism, while more diffuse impairments would affect mobilization. High rather than low inhibition was more likely to be associated with impairment, typically lateralized to the right hemisphere. Study data and about 50 references are supplied. (Author abstract modified)