The offenders and nonoffenders were matched with respect to age, intelligence, socioeconomic status, and urban and rural location. Information on their reactions to frustration was gathered using Pareek's Indian Adaptation of Rosenzweig Picture-Frustration Study. Participants viewed drawings representing everyday situations in which one person said something that would cause frustration to the other person pictured. The participants said or wrote what the other person would say in that situation. Results indicated that both female delinquents and adult offenders were high on introgression, blame avoidance, evading frustration, need persistence, and group conformity and low on obstacle-dominance. Adult criminals, but not delinquents, showed higher ego-defensiveness than nonoffenders. The nonoffenders were high on extragression and obstacle-dominance, while the nondelinquents also showed higher ego-defensiveness. Tables and 11 references (Author abstract modified)