engleski

Differences in Personality and Behavioral Traits between Prisoners with Different Levels of Intellectual Functioning

The relation between crime and intelligence is an old criminological topic of interest. With the development of criminology as a science, the mono-causal approach to the relation between crime and intelligence has been deemed as inadequate and intelligence is today treated as one of the criminogenic factors. The majority of contemporary research in criminology deals with the “average” offenders, while offenders with upper or lower levels of intellectual functioning are marginalized (justified with their minor prevalence in the general population). This lack of interest is evident in correctional researches, too. The relationship between criminal offending and intellectual functioning has not attracted the attention of scientists in Croatia in a significant extent, especially in the last few decades, and the purpose of this study is to fill that gap. The aim of this study was to determine the differences in certain personality and behavioral characteristics of prisoners with regard to their levels of intellectual functioning (above average, average, and below average). The sample consists of 315 adult males who served a prison sentence in the Lepoglava penitentiary in Croatia. A questionnaire was created for the purpose of this study and the data was collected by examining the personal files of prisoners in the penitentiary. The following personality traits were analyzed in this paper: affectothymia, emotional stability, extroversion, dominance, aggression, self- criticism, personality disorder, neurotic disorder, sexual disorder and psychopathic structure. Behavioral features included in this analysis were - self-harm, suicide attempts and substance abuse. In addition, we analyzed crime-related behaviors like - type of criminal offense, the motivational and situational factors related to the crime, the attitude towards the offense, the role in the commission of the offense and previous convictions. The conducted analyses (discriminant analysis and chi-square test) show that there are differences in personality and behavioral traits between prisoners with different levels of intellectual functioning.

prisoners ; crime ; intelligence ; intellectual functioning ; behavioral traits ; personality

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