Evaluation: Personality as an Explanation of Crime

Eyesenck's theory of the criminal personality suggested that it is possible to measure personality along two dimensions: extraversion-introversion, and neuroticism-stability.
1. Extraverts crave excitement and stimulation, and because of this may be more likely to engage in risk-taking, dangerous behaviour. They also tend to not condition easily and do not learn from their mistakes, making the likelihood of recidivism higher.
2. People who are more neurotic are more nervy and anxious. This emotional instability makes them more difficult to predict, and could make criminal and anti-social behaviour more likely due to their impulsivity.
3. Eyesenck's theory has been criticised for being too simplistic and deterministic, as it suggests that there is only one type of criminal personality. More recent models, such as the five-factor model (Digman), accepts Eyesenck's idea of extraversion and introversion, but adds other aspects including openness, agreeableness and conscientiousness. Low levels of agreeableness and conscientiousness have been related to offending behaviours. Other researchers challenge Eyesenck's theory by suggesting that impulsivity is a better predictor of anti-social and criminal behaviour. This research suggests that criminal personality may be more complex than Eyesenck first suggested.
Eyesenck's theory is essential biological in nature. The personality traits we develop can be explained by the type of nervous system we inherit. The constant need for excitement that extraverts experience is due to them having an underactive nervous system, as it requires an unusual amount of arousal. Similarly, individuals who score highly on neuroticism react strongly to situations that others would find less stressful, or even neutral.
1. There is evidence to suggest that the criminal personality is related to the activity of the nervous system. Raine found that those with a criminal record later in life recorded more signs of under-arousal of the nervous system when they were aged 15, such as lower resting heart rates, than those without a criminal record. This suggests there is a link between biological factors and offending, although research has pointed out that a lot of social variables also have an influence in predicting criminal behaviour.
In his later writings, Eyesenck added in another dimension to his theory - psychoticism. This was less clear in relation to its connections to the nervous system, however it suggested that psychotic individuals were self-centred, cold and lacking in empathy towards others.
1. Therefore, the criminal type is characterised as a person who scores highly on all dimensions - extraversion, neuroticism and psychoticism. A personality inventory was developed, which was a questionnaire which helped place people along the dimensions to determine a personality type.
  1. There is a lot of supporting evidence to support the idea of a criminal personality. Boduszek found that among a group of violent and non-violent reoffenders in a high security prison, a criminal thinking 'style' correlated with high levels of psychoticism, extraversion and neuroticism. This suggests that Eyesenck's theory has validity as there is empirical evidence suggesting there is a link between personality and offending/reoffending.
    1. However, Farrington et al found very little evidence that the questionnaire Eyesenck developed was an adequate measure of predicting offending, both in juveniles and in adults. This suggests that Eyesenck's theory about the criminal personality may lack validity.
Despite the biological basis to the theory, Eyesenck did acknowledge the importance of the socialisation process in childhood in determining whether someone will be law-abiding or not. However, the fact that extraverts are natural reward seekers makes them less receptive to operant conditioning and therefore less affected by punishments for wrongdoings. Similarly, neurotics have less efficient learning which may relate to a difficulty in taking on board social rules. This may make extravert-neurotics more likely to behave in an anti-social way.
1. Eyesenck's theory could lead to practical implications in preventing crime. The theory suggests that criminal tendencies, like responding less to conditioning and not learning from their own mistakes, could be identified early in childhood. This could lead to intervention which could modify the socialisation experiences of high-risk individuals in order to prevent them from becoming offenders. This suggests that Eyesenck's theory could be beneficial in reducing criminal and anti-social behaviour through early interventions at school or home.

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Evaluation: Personality as an Explanation of Crime

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	Created by Katie Greensted over 5 years ago