The Facets of Criminality: A Cross-Modal and Cross-Gender Validation

Abstract

In order to establish if criminals carried out distinct sub-sets of criminal activity as opposed to being widely versatile in the type of crime that they committed, 54 female and 49 male offenders completed a self-report questionnaire that asked about their criminality in two modes: Convictions and actual commission. MDS analysis of the resulting data supported the hypothesis that there is a subset of general criminal activities that most offenders have been involved in, but that there is also a tendency for offenders to evince thematic foci to their activities that relate to dishonesty, violence or antisocial crimes. These three core themes are present both in male and female offenders and across data modalities, emerging in the crimes for which the offender has been convicted as well as those to which s/he admits.

Antisocial Behaviour: A Unidimensional or Multidimensional Construct?

“…Empirical evidence suggests this construct does not present a unifactorial structure. Recent publications refer to antisocial behaviour as a variable that groups distinct types of acts (Carter, Gray, Baillargeon & Wakschlag, 2013;Farrington, 2005;Russell & Odgers, 2016;van Lier, Wanner & Vitaro, 2007;Youngs, Canter & Cooper, 2004), and these findings were corroborated here.…”

“…37(1) / pp. 13-27 / 2019 / ISSNe2145-4515 2005; Youngs et al, 2004). Antisocial behaviour tends to be more frequent in males than in females (Eme, 2015), except when it is related to drug use (Kennedy, Epstein, Phillips & Preston, 2013).…”

How does crime pay? The differentiation of criminal specialisms by fundamental incentive

“…Second, a self-report questionnaire allows fuller description of the psychological and contextual qualities of the behaviours than do official data. Third, a previous study by Youngs, Canter, and Cooper (2004) with a version of the questionnaire used in the present study, obtained with the questionnaire, results similar to those found from official records.…”

Developmental correlates of offending patterns in serial rapists

“…In offender populations specifically, studies have uncovered meaningful thematic elements underlying several types of crimes (Bennell and Canter, 2002; Santtila et al , 2003; Trojan and Salfati, 2008; Alison, 2005; Youngs et al , 2004). For example, studies have distinguished between offenses motivated by expressive‐affective and those motivated by instrumental forms of aggression (Salfati and Park, 2007).…”