Eysenck's Theory of Criminality

• Date: 01 September 1979
• Published date: 01 September 1979
• DOI: 10.1177/009385487900600304
• Subject Matter: Articles

245

EYSENCK’S

THEORY

OF

CRIMINALITY

A

Test

on

an

American

Prisoner

Population

CURT R. BARTOL

Castleton

State

College

HOWARD

A.

HOLANCHOCK

Great

Meadow

Correctional

Facility,

Comstock,

New

York

Authors’ Note:

Address

requests for

reprints

to

Curt

R.

Bartol,

Depart-

ment

of

Psychology,

Castleton

State

College,

Castleton,

Vermont

05735.

Felons

in

a

maximum

security

institution

were

administered

the

Eysenck

Personality

Questionnaire

to

test

the

validity

of

Eysenck’s

theory

of

criminality

on

an

American

population.

Comparison

with

a

noncriminal

control

group

found

a

significant

difference

in

the

L-scale,

but

none

for

P

and

N

scores.

E

scores

were

significantly

lower

for

the

criminal

group.

When

the

criminal

sample

was

divided

according

to

offense

type,

differ-

ences

in

P-scale

and

in

neuroticism

were

also

uncovered.

When

high

L-scorers

were

elimi-

nated

from

the

sample,

the

criminal

group

scored

higher

on

the

P

and

N

scale,

but

E

scores

remained

similar

to

those

of

the

control

group.

The

results

raise

questions

about

the

Eysenckian

theory

when

applied

to

American

Black

and

Hispanic

prisoners.

ysenck

(1977)

has

postulated

a

general

theory

of

criminality

which

predicts

that

criminals

as

a

group

will

demonstrate

significantly

higher

scores

on

the

personality

dimensions

of

psychoticism

(P),

extroversion-introversion

(E),

and

neuroti-

cism-stability

(N),

as

measured

by

the

Eysenck

Personality

Ques-