NCJ Number
97490
Journal
Journal of Offender Counseling Volume: 5 Issue: 1 Dated: (April 1985) Pages: 2-8
Date Published
1985
Length
7 pages
Annotation
This study examined the extent of anxiety in a male prison population and the correlation between anxiety and other personality and clinical characteristics of the participants.
Abstract
The study sample consisted of 159 male public offenders who were admitted to 1 prison system during a consecutive 3-month period. All were convicted of a felony, were at least 17 years old, and gave permission for testing. Each prisoner was given the Clinical Analysis Questionnaire (CAQ) and the What I Think and Feel (WITF) test at the time of admission to prison. The CAQ consists of two parts: the first measures basic personality traits; the second consists of items developed on the basis of reported clinical symptoms. The WITF, a measure of anxiety, also contains a lie scale that is basically a report of the participant's need for social desirability or level of defensiveness. The participants' scores on the clinical symptoms portion of the CAQ were at or below the mean, suggesting a lower than average incidence of pathological symptoms. For the personality traits measured by the CAQ, these offenders scored low on tension and on insecurity. Because the participants reported a low level of anxiety, the results on the WITF are somewhat similar; offenders' scores reflected low anxiety and average social desirability. Thus, the evidence suggests the absence of a 'criminal personality' that is a separate and distinct type of personality. Two tables and 19 references are included.