A2 FORENSIC PSYCHOLOGY - PSYCHOLOGICAL EXPLANATIONS OF OFFENDING; EYSENCK'S THEORY OF CRIMINAL PERSONALITY

Question 1

Describe Eysenck’s theory of criminal personality

Answer 1

Said there are 3 parts to criminal personality; extarversion (E-score), neuroticism (N-score) and psychoticism (which was added after the other two) (P-score). Said that all personality types, including these 3 criminal ones, are bio based and come from the nervous system, i.e. all criminal beh is bio and innate.

Question 2

Describe the 3 criminal personality traits

Answer 2

Extraversion (opposite is introversion) is linked to being active, assertive, creative, carefree, dominant, lively, sensation seeking and venturesome

Neuroticism (opposite is stability) is linked to being anxious, depressed, emotional, feelings of guilt, irrational, low self esteem, moody, shy and tense

Psychoticism is linked to being cold, aggressive, anti-social, egocentric, impulsive, tough-minded and a lack of empathy

Question 3

Explain why each of the personality traits leads to criminal beh.

Answer 3

Extraverts seek more arousal and so often engage in criminal activity to do so. They’re difficult to condition, i.e. don’t learn rules very easily and punishment tends to fail.

Neurotic people are very quick to overreact, especially when they feel threatened.

Psychotic people tend to be aggressive (which could link to testosterone and explain why more men offend than women.

So those with a high ENP score are more likely to engage in criminal beh

Question 4

Describe what Eysenck said about socialisation

Answer 4

Said criminal beh is developmentally immature and that criminals don’t respond appropriately to the socialisation process i.e. they don’t learn how to delay gratification over time. Those with a high ENP score don’t learn how to appropriately respond to anti-social impulses, which links to criminal beh.

Question 5

How is Eysenck’s criminal personality measured?

Answer 5

Eysenck’s Personality Inventory (EPI) was dev.ed to measure personality and determine whether someone was likely to become a criminal or not. There are 3 dimensions; one for each of the ENP traits. It works on the basis that personality can definitely be measured.

Question 6

Evaluate Eysenck’s criminal personality

Answer 6

(+) Eysenck and Eysenck (1977) studied 2070 criminals and 2422 non-criminals, and found the criminals had a sig higher ENP score than non-criminals.
(-) However, Farrington (1982) did a meta analysis of lots of studies on the ENP score and found offenders only tended to score higher on the P score, but not E or N; flawed explanation
(+) Real life application; if high E score leads to criminal beh as they’re sensation seeking, then invest money into local youth projects etc to give them the sensations they seek and stop them from engaging in criminal beh.
(-) Very reductionist; the idea that all criminal beh can be explained by one personality type is too simplistic, and also personality changes over time