NCJ Number
80225
Journal
Indian Journal of Criminology Volume: 9 Issue: 2 Dated: (July 1981) Pages: 156-160
Date Published
1981
Length
5 pages
Annotation
Methodology and findings are presented from an Indian study that examined the personalities of female murderers compared to personalities of female petty offenders.
Abstract
Two groups of 75 subjects comprised the study sample. One group consisted of 75 women from three prisons who had been convicted of murder, and the second group of 75 was composed of women offenders who had been convicted of petty crimes, such as theft, excise act violations, and pickpocketing. Subjects were administered two tests: (1) the Hindi translated versions of Eysenck and Eysenck's (1968) PEN (psychoticism, extraversion, and neuroticism), and (2) the NSQ of Sheier and Cattell (1961). Female murderers emerged as the less extraverted group (tending to be over-controlled and more socialized), with higher psychoticism (characterized by traits such as solitary, troublesome, cruel, insensitive, and aggressive) and neuroticism (high emotionality or anxiety) scores. The findings supported the hypotheses of the study, based on reviews of similar studies. Further, only six of the females who had committed murder had any previous convictions, compared to 39 of the petty offenders. The majority of the women had murdered a family member or a close relative after prolonged or repeated provocation (real or imagined). Tabular data and 20 references are provided.