NCJ Number
189286
Journal
Psychology, Crime & Law Volume: 6 Issue: 2 Dated: 2000 Pages: 113-125
Date Published
2000
Length
13 pages
Annotation
This paper analyzed the relationship of personality and socioeconomic factors to rates of criminal activity.
Abstract
Based on data from 37 countries, this paper analyzed national profiles in terms of personality dimensions: psychoticism, extraversion, and neuroticism; and four socioeconomic indexes: gross domestic product, human development index, economic growth, and family size, and their relationship to rates of criminal activity. The socioeconomic indicators did correlate with national crime patterns. High crime nations were more likely to be the richer, industrialized countries having smaller average family size. Personality variables proved more elusive. Psychoticism was not correlated with incidence of crime. Extraversion appeared most closely linked to rate and type of crime. The paper claims that this research confirms the link between extraversion and the commission of certain types of crime as well as establishing more sensitive socioeconomic indicators that provide fruitful indexes for more detailed analyses. Further, it is a creative and useful start in explaining and predicting geographic patterns of crime using general population data. Tables, references