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Eysenck's Theory of Criminality Applied to Women Awaiting Trial

NCJ Number
76155
Journal
British Journal of Psychiatry Volume: 133 Dated: (July 1978) Pages: 452-456
Author(s)
L I Barack; C S Widom
Date Published
1978
Length
5 pages
Annotation
Sixty American women awaiting trial were given the Eysenck Personality Questionnaire to determine the personality characteristics and to assess the validity of Eysenck's scale.
Abstract
The subjects awaiting trial at the Massachusetts Correctional Institution at Framingham. The racial composition of the group was 43.3 percent Caucasian and 56.7 percent nonwhite. Offense charges included armed robbery, burglary, larceny, alcohol and narcotics violations, and prostitution. The subjects completed the Eysenck Personality Questionnaire and a background information sheet. The subjects scored above the norms on the neuroticism and psychoticism scales of the questionnaire. More than half of the subjects fell into the neurotic-extravert personality quadrant. There was little difference between the sores of the white and nonwhite participants. There were no significant differences between the scores achieved by this group and the subjects in the Eysenck study of British female offenders. In general the results indicate support for the Eysenck theory as well as for Burgess's hedonism variables. The score elevations found in these women may have been the result of incarceration rather than of differences in personality characteristics from the general population. Although these subjects were awaiting trial, and were not convicted offenders, the effects may have been the result of having been labeled as criminals. Tabular data and 12 references are included.