Evaluation to Eysenck's theory

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P - research support to support the criminal personality

Ev - Eysenck and Eysenck (1977), 2070 male prisoners - 2422 male controls and did the EPI. On measures of E, N and P prisoners recorded higher scores than the control group which accords with the prediction of the theory

Ex - agrees with the prediction of the theory that offenders rate higher than average across the three dimensions

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P - too simplistic as the idea is only explained by personality traits alone

Ev - Moffitt (1993) argued that personality traits were a poor predictor of how long offending behaviour would go on for. She considered environmental factors to be a reason

Ex - presents a more complex picture than Eysenck’s suggested

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P - cultural factors

Ev - Bartol and Holanchock studied Hispanic and African-American offenders. Found that all six groups were less extravert than a non-offender control group whereas Eysenck would expect them to be more extravert. They suggests that this was because the sample was a very different cultural group from that investigated by Eysenck

Ex - this questions how far the criminal personality can be generalised and suggests it may be a culturally relative concept