Psychological Explanations of Offending Behaviour

• Eysenck's theory of criminal personality


  A person with a criminal personality would have a high score on extroversion, neuroticism and psychoticism
• People with criminal personality

  • Have nervous systems that make them difficult to condition (train)
  • Do not associate anxiety with antisocial behaviour (as we are socialised to do from childhood)
  • Are more likely to engage in criminal behaviour
• Eysenck believed that each personality trait has a biological basis which is mainly innate and comes about through the type of nervous system we inherit
• Eysenck Personality Questionnaire (EPQ)


  • A psychological test to assess an individual's personality
  • Locates respondents along different dimensions to determine their personality type
• Extraverts

  • Sociable
  • Impulsive
  • Expressive
  • Risk taking
• Extraverts


  • Under-aroused in their central and autonomic nervous system
  • Need more external stimulation compared to an introvert
  • Seek external stimulation to increase their cortisol arousal
  • Often take risks and engage in dangerous thrill-seeking behaviour
• Neurotics


  • Nervous
  • Obsessive
  • Slightly unstable
  • Prone to overreacting
  • Difficult to predict
• Neurotics

  • Have an autonomic nervous system that responds quickly to stress
  • Prone to over react to situations of threat which could explain criminal activity especially in an emotionally charged situation
• Psychotics

  • Egocentric
  • Cold
  • Aggressive
  • Lack empathy
  • Not concerned about the welfare of other people
• Psychotics


  • Related to high levels of testosterone
  • Can be easily linked to criminality as they are characterised as lacking in empathy, unemotional and prone to aggression
• Eysenck's theory of the criminal personality


  Provides evidence to support the theory
• Eysenck's study

  1. Compared 2070 male prisoners' scores on the EPQ with 2422 male controls

  2. Subdivided groups into age groups ranging from 16 to 69 years

  3. Measured psychoticism, extraversion and neuroticism

  4. Prisoners recorded higher scores than controls across all ages
• Eysenck's study supports his predictions of what constitutes a criminal personality
• Farrington et al. (1982) reviewed several studies and reported that offenders tended to score high on Psychoticism measures, but not for Extroversion and Neuroticism
• There is very little evidence of consistent differences in EEG measures between extraverts and introverts, which casts doubt on the biological basis of Eysenck's theory
• The link between personality traits and criminal behaviour is unclear
• The idea that all offending behaviour can be explained by Eysenck's three personality dimensions can be heavily criticised as over simplistic
• Digman's (1990) Five Factor Model of personality


  Suggests that alongside Extroversion and Neuroticism, there are additional dimensions of Openness, Agreeableness and Conscientiousness
• From the perspective of the Five Factor Model, multiple combinations of personality traits are available and therefore a high Extroversion and Neuroticism score does not mean offending is inevitable
• Other psychologists also believe that personality is not consistent and will change depending on the situation and who a person is with
• The notion of a criminal personality is flawed as people do not simply have 'one' fixed personality type, criminal or otherwise
• Eysenck's theory

  • Underlying tendencies that eventually manifest as criminal behaviour are detectable in childhood
  • It may be possible to modify the socialisation experiences of high-risk individuals so that they do not develop into offenders
• Practical application of Eysenck's theory to prevent crime

  1. Detect high-risk individuals in childhood

  2. Modify socialisation experiences of high-risk individuals

  3. Interventions based on parenting or early treatment for delinquency (such as social skills training)

  4. Reduce criminal behaviour
• Practical application of Eysenck's theory may point us in some useful directions when it comes to preventing crime
• Interventions based on parenting or early treatment for delinquency (such as social skills training) may be of great practical benefit in reducing criminal behaviour
• Methodological issue

  An issue with the method used to develop a theory
• Issue with Eysenck's theory of criminal personality

  • The method he used to develop his theory
  • He used the Eysenck Personality Questionnaire (EPQ) to assess an individual's personality
  • The score or label given to the person depends on the answers they provide on the personality questionnaire
• EPQ


  Uses simple yes/no questions which offer a "forced choice" between an answer which is high in the trait or an answer which is low
• Forced choice questions in EPQ

  May not represent 'reality' and may inaccurately label a person as having/not having a criminal personality
• Offenders used in the sample

  Socially desirability bias may occur which may question the truthfulness of the responses provided, decreasing the validity
• Careful considerations of the measure used should be made prior to drawing any conclusions about criminal personalities