Date of Award

6-2017

Document Type

Open Access

Degree Name

Bachelor of Science

Department

Psychology

First Advisor

Cay Anderson-Hanley

Language

English

Keywords

offender, criminality, empathy, aggression, study, perspectives

Abstract

Predictive offender profiling uses present offense details as well as personality and behavior traits to predict past criminal history to better understand criminality and predict future offending. A typical offender profile is characterized as the inability to understand other peoples’ emotions and perspectives, tendency to act without thinking, propensity for dealing with adversity through aggression, and deficit in cognitive abilities. There are assumed differences between offenders and non-offenders, but these differences have rarely been studied. The present study examines the differences between 22 male offenders and non- offenders in empathy, impulsivity, aggression, and executive functioning in a sample from the northeastern United States. This study forms an exploratory predictive model that strongly predicts offender status based on physical aggression, empathic concern, and executive functioning scores (χ2 = 17.15, p = .001). Additionally, this study identifies that executive functioning performance was significantly lower (p = .04) in offenders and physical aggression scores were significantly higher for offenders (p = .04). The assumed differences in verbal aggression, impulsivity, and empathy that did not present as significantly different in the results of this study demonstrate the need for further research and understanding.

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