Qualitative Exploration and Correction Strategies of the Criminal Psychological Mechanism of the Burglars

Abstract

In order to explore the criminal psychological mechanism of burglars, this study adopts the qualitative research method of grounded theory to conduct in-depth interviews with 41 burglars in two prisons in Jiangxi Province, China. Nvivo 11.0 was used to code-construct and qualitatively analyze the interview content in order to refine the influencing factors and psychological evolution process of burglary behavior. The findings revealed that (1) burglary risk factors include burglary cognition, burglary motivation, burglary decision-making, delinquent peers, burglary opportunity, and incomplete reformation. (2) There are three stages in the psychological evolution process of burglars: cognitive formation, motivational dominance, and behavioral decision. (3) The interpretation of the criminal psychological mechanism of burglars is a comprehensive and dynamic outcome of the interaction of internal and external factors that shape the individual. Participants' inspection and non-participants' inspection were adapted to verify the research results' validity, which showed that the results were reliable.