psychological explanation: Eysenck's theory Flashcards
Biological basis
Criminal personality due to type of nervous system we inherit
Arousal
how NS system responds to stimuli, leading to innate offender behaviour
Extravert-Introvert
Chronically under-aroused NS, attention seeking for stimulation, hard to socialise/condition
Neurotic-stable
Easy to upset, anxious, obsessive due to easily triggered NS
Psychoticism
Measured on a scale from low to high, psychotics do not feel compassion
Criminal personality
high on extravert, neurotic and psychoticism measures
Research support
Eysenck personality questionnaire to 100 convicted inmates and 100 trade students, higher number with ‘criminal personality’ part of convict group
Simplistic
Personality traits alone insufficient in predicting offender behaviour, Moffitt suggests dual taxonomy, people who are stable in offender behaviour throughout their life, and those who stop in adulthood. Better explains 10x higher offender rates in adolescence
Not all ENP personalities = offender
5 factor model includes other dimensions of personality e.g. agreeableness, those may be more important in criminality - not all ENP becomes criminals. Criminality based on NS causes issue of biological determinism
Cultural factors
Hispanic and AA offenders in max security prison in New york studied. Divided into groups based on history - all groups were less extravert than a non-offender control group, Eysenck would expect them to be more. Could be due to sample having different culture to one investigated by Eysenck - cannot be generalised
Measuring personality
Theory offers a way to measure personality through a test so can see how criminal personality differs from rest of the world.
HOWEVER
Personality type may not be reducible to a score, personality too dynamic and complex to be quantified.
