Question

how does personality explain criminality?

Answer 1

According to Walsh and Ellis 2007,personality is the reflexion of the totality of a human being’s beliefs, attitudes, behaviors, and ways of interacting with the environment.Human personality is composed of various traits.Personality and crime have been linked in two general ways. First, in “personality-trait psychology” (Akers & Sellers, 2009, p. 74) certain traits within a structured model of personality may be linked to antisocial behavior.The second way that personality theorists have linked personality to crime is through “personality-type psychology” (Akers & Sellers, 2009, p. 74) or by asserting that certain deviant, abnormal individuals possess a criminal personality, labeled psychopathic, sociopathic, or antisocial.

According to Eysenck’s theory, personality is linked to criminal behaviour through socialization processes.He viewed criminal behaviour as developmentally immature, selfish and concerned with immediate gratification. The socialization process is one in which children are taught to become more able to delay and control gratification and more socially oriented. This is done primarily through conditioning. When children act in immature ways they are punished. Consequently, they come to associate anxiety with antisocial behaviour. Where this process is successful, even thinking about antisocial behaviour produces anxiety, so the person avoids doing it. Eysenck believed that people with high Extraversion and Neuroticism scores had nervous systems that made them difficult to condition. As a result,they would not learn easily to respond to antisocial impulses with anxiety. So, they would be more likely to act antisocially in situations where the opportunity presented itself.