Eysenck's Theory

• Eysenck


  Personality type has a biological basis, criminal personality is due to the nervous system we inherit
• Theory of Criminal Personality

  Argued personality traits had 3 dimensions:

  • Extraversion-Introversion - Under-aroused nervous system, attention seeking
  • Neuroticism-Stability - Easily triggered nervous system, easy to upset
  • Psychoticism-Normality - Emotionally cold with no compassion, linked to testosterone
• Scores of Personality


  Most people score low on psychoticism, but there are even amounts of people on either side of the other scales
• Criminal Personality


  High on extravert, neurotic and psychotic measures
• (+) A03: McGurk + McDougall (1981)

  Eysenck's personality questionnaire to 100 convicted inmates and 100 trade based students

  • Found a higher number of people with extravert, neurotic and psychotic personality types in delinquent group
• (-) A03: Digman (1990)


  Argues more modern 5 factor model

  • Addition of Openess, Agreeableness and Conscientiousness

  May be more important in criminality as not all ENP types become criminals
• (-) A03: Holanchock (1979)

  EPQ was culturally bias, finding that Hispanic and African-American prisoners were less extravert than a control group, challenging generalisability