Psychological explanations of offending behaviour: Eysenck theory

+evidence to support the criminal personality

Sybil & Hans Eysenck: compared 2070 prisoners scores on Eysencks personality Questionnaire with 2422 controls

Across all age groups were sampled (on measures of extraversion/neuroticism/psychoticism)

• Prisoners recorded higher average scores than controls

• Agrees with predictions of the theory that offenders rate higher (neurotic-extravert) than others

-counterpoint

David Farrington et al: conducted meta-analysis of relevant studies & reported that offenders tended to score high on psychoticism (but not for extraversion & neuroticism)

• inconsistent evidence of differences on EEG measures between extraverts & introverts→casting doubt on Eysencks theory

-too simplistic

Terrie Moffitt: drew a distinction between offending behaviour that only occurs in adolescence & which continues into adulthood

Argues personality traits alone were a poor predictor of how long offending behaviour would go on for→someone likely to become ‘career offender’

Presents a more complex picture than Eysenck suggested, that course of offending behaviour is determined by interactions between personality & environment

-cultural factors not taken into account

Criminal personality may vary according to culture

Curt Bartol & Howard Holanchock: studied Hispanic & African-American offenders in a max-security prison in New York

Researchers divided offenders into 6 groups based on their offending history & nature of offences

Found all 6 groups were less extraverted than non-offender control group (Eysenck expected them to be more extraverted)

• questions generalisability to other cultures