PERSONALITY AND CRIMINALITY (FROM CRIME IN SOCIETY, 1978, BY LEONARD D SAVITZ AND NORMAN JOHNSTON - SEE NCJ-53552)

• NCJ Number: 53556
• Author(s): D J TENNENBAUM
• Date Published: 1978
• Length: 10 pages
• Corporate Author: John Wiley and Sons
• Publication Format: Document
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America
• Note: REPRINTED FROM 'RESEARCH STUDIES OF PERSONALITY AND CRIMINALITY - A SUMMARY AND IMPLICATIONS OF THE LITERATURE', JOURNAL OF CRIMINAL JUSTICE, V 5, N 3 (1977), P 1-19

Annotation

THE FINDINGS OF SCHUESSLER AND CRESSEY (1950) AND WALDO AND DINITZ (1967) ARE UPDATED IN THIS REVIEW OF THE TRENDS IN LITERATURE FROM 1967 TO 1975 ATTEMPTING TO CORRELATE CRIMINALITY AND PERSONALITY.

Abstract

THE PRIMARY SOURCES USED FOR THE REVIEW WERE 'PSYCHOLOGICAL ABSTRACTS' AND 'CRIME AND DELINQUENCY ABSTRACTS' FOR ARTICLES PUBLISHED BETWEEN 1967 AND 1975. ONLY DATA THAT COMPARED A DELINQUENT OR CRIMINAL POPULATION TO A CONTROL (NONCRIMINAL) POPULATION WERE USED. EMPLOYING STRINGENT CRITERIA FOR INCLUSION, THE COMPARISONS SHOW REMARKABLY SIMILAR RESULTS TO WALDO AND DINITZ' OVERALL FINDING THAT APPROXIMATELY 80 PERCENT OF THE STUDIES SHOW DIFFERENCES IN CRIMINAL AND NONCRIMINAL GROUPS. SCORES ON THE FOLLOWING PSYCHOLOGICAL TESTS WERE COMPARED FOR THE TWO GROUPS: ACTIVITY VECTOR ANALYSIS, THE CALIFORNIA PSYCHOLOGICAL INVENTORY, DOWNEY-WILL TEMPERAMENT TESTS, THE GOODENOUGH DRAWING TEST, THE JUNIOR EYSENCK PERSONALITY INVENTORY, THE MACHOVER DRAW-A-PERSON TEST, THE SWEET PERSONAL ATTITUDES TEST, AND THE TELENOMIC TRENDS INSTRUMENT. IT IS CONCLUDED THAT WITH THE ATTEMPT TO TRY NEW AND DIFFERENT TESTS DURING THE PERIOD FROM 1967 TO 1975, IT IS DISCONCERTING TO FIND THAT PERSONALITY TESTS, PER SE, ARE NOT BETTER PREDICTORS OF CRIMINAL PERSONALITIES NOW THAN THEY WERE 10 YEARS AGO. AS SOME PRACTITIONERS ARE SUGGESTING, THERE INDEED MAY BE A 'CRIMINAL PERSONALITY,' BUT THIS MAY BE SUCH A COMPLEX ENTITY THAT EXISTING TESTING PROCEDURES ARE NOT REFLECTING THE MULTIDIMENSIONAL DIFFERENCES BETWEEN CRIMINALS AND NONCRIMINALS; THE MAJORITY OF TESTING ALLOWS FOR MORE DIFFERENCES TO BE FOUND WITHIN GROUPS OF CRIMINALS AND NONCRIMINALS THAN BETWEEN THE TWO GROUPS. ESSENTIALLY, THE DATA DO NOT REVEAL ANY SIGNIFICANT DIFFERENCES BETWEEN CRIMINAL AND NONCRIMINAL PSYCHOLOGY BECAUSE MOST RESULTS ARE BASED ON TAUTOLOGICAL ARGUMENT. THE CONCLUSION REMAINS THAT CURSORY PERSONALITY TESTING HAS NOT DIFFERENTIATED BETWEEN CRIMINALS AND NONCRIMINALS. REFERENCES AND TABULAR DATA ARE INCLUDED. (KBL)