Assessment of the 'Reflective' Attitude and Typing of Criminal Offenses (From Israel Studies in Criminology, P 1-13, 1979, S Giora Shoham and Anthony Grahame, ed. - See NCJ-74408)

• NCJ Number: 74409
• Author(s): S P Spitzer; B West
• Date Published: 1979
• Length: 12 pages
• Sale Source: Turtledove Publishing
• Publication Type: Report (Study/Research)
• Language: English
• Country: Israel
• Note: Paper presented at the annual meeting of the Society for the Study of Social Problems, San Francisco (CA), September 1978

Annotation

This study explores the relationship between personality and type of criminal offense by using symbolic interactionist theory to determine if a reflective or nonreflective mode of orientation is a personality trait that is reflected in the type of crime committed.

Abstract

Forty male inmates at the Minnesota State Prison in Stillwater, Min. volunteered to participate in the study. Interviews were conducted at the prison shortly before the men were released in 1973-74. The interview schedule contained questions about the offenders' backgrounds and expectations. An open-ended instrument, the Kuhn Twenty Statements Test, was used to elicit offenders' statements about themselves. The schedule was successfully completed by 39 inmates, 22 of whom had been convicted for crimes against property and 17 of whom had been convicted of crimes against persons. Statements indicative of reflection are those containing certain explicit forms of self-references. A total of 53 percent of the personal offenders showed reflection while only 18 percent of the property offenders showed reflection. Results suggested that the ability to predict type of offense from a nondemographic individual difference variable may help to bridge the gap between typologies based on type of offender and those based on type of offender and those based on type of offense. Footnotes which include references are included. (Author abstract modified).