Eysenck's theory

• Eysenck's theory

  Criminals have a certain personality type due to a biological inheritance
• Criminal personality type

  • Highly extroverted
  • Highly neurotic
  • Highly psychotic
• Study by McGurk and McDougal

  • Gave Eysenck's personality questionnaire to 100 convicted inmates and 100 students
  • Found more extroverted, neurotic and psychotic personalities in the delinquent group
• Eysenck's theory assumes

  Personality is stable over a lifetime and there is one criminal personality type
• This doesn't match the data showing offending is up to 10 times higher in adolescence
• Moffitt's dual taxonomy of offenders

  • Life-course persistent offenders
  • Adolescent limited offenders
• Moffitt's explanation seems to fit the data better than Eisenick's single criminal personality type
• Modern personality theorists think Eisenick's 3 dimensions is too simplistic, 5 factor model is more rounded
• There is biological evidence that offender behaviour has a biological basis, Eisenick's theory could be the psychological result of these biological factors
• Biological theories of offending raise issues of 'biology as destiny' and whether personality should be considered in sentencing