Many of the personality traits distinguishing offenders from nonoffenders reflect interpersonal characteristics. This study examined the relationship of levels of criminality to interpersonal style in forensic psychiatric patients suffering from major mental illness (n = 143) and those without mental illness (n = 59). Observers rated patients on a measure of the interpersonal circle (CIRCLE: Chart of Interpersonal Reactions in Closed Living Environments) from which scores on dominance-submission and nurturance-hostility dimensions were derived. Mentally ill offenders were more submissive than those without mental illness, but in both groups, offenders with higher levels of criminal convictions were more dominant than those with the lowest levels. Correlational analysis indicated that offenders with extensive criminal careers who are not mentally ill have a more dominant and coercive interpersonal style. Similar, but less pronounced trends were apparent among mentally ill offenders. These findings suggest that persistent lawbreaking may represent attempts to master a social environment perceived as hostile.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
American Psychiatric Association . (1987). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (4th ed.). Washington, DC: Author.
2.
Andrews, D. A. , & Wormith, J. S. (1989). Personality and crime: Knowledge destruction and construction in criminology. Justice Quarterly, 6, 289-309.
3.
Blackburn, R. (1988). On moral judgments and personality disorders: The myth of the psychopathic personality revisited. British Journal of Psychiatry, 153, 505-512.
4.
Blackburn, R. (1993). The psychology of criminal conduct: Theory, research and practice. Chichester, UK: Wiley.
5.
Blackburn, R. (in press). Relationship of personality disorders to ratings of interpersonal style in forensic psychiatric patients. Journal of Personality Disorders.
6.
Blackburn, R. , & Maybury, C. (1985). Identifying the psychopath; The relation of Cleckley's criteria to the interpersonal domain. Personality and Individual Differences, 6, 375-386.
7.
Blackburn, R. , & Renwick, S. J. (1996). Rating scales for measuring the interpersonal circle in forensic psychiatric patients. Psychological Assessment, 8, 76-84.
8.
Carson, R. C. (1970). Interaction concepts of personality. Chicago: Aldine.
9.
Carson, R. C. (1996). Seamlessness in personality and its derangements. Journal of Personality Assessment, 66, 240-247.
10.
Caspi, A. , Moffitt, T. E., Silva, P. A., Stouthamer-Loeber, M., Krueger, R. F., & Schmutte, P. S. (1994). Are some people crime-prone? Replications of the personality-crime relationship across countries, genders, races, and methods. Criminology, 32, 163-195.
11.
Cleckley, H. (1976). The mask of sanity (6th ed.). St. Louis, MO: C. V. Mosby.
12.
Emler, N. (1984). Differential involvement in delinquency: Toward an interpretation in terms of reputation management. In B. A. Maher & W. B. Maher (Eds.), Progress in experimental personality research, Vol. 13 (pp. 173-239). New York: Academic Press.
13.
Eysenck, H. J. , & Gudjonsson, G. H. (1989). The causes and cures of criminality. New York: Plenum.
14.
Glueck, S. , & Glueck, E. (1950). Unraveling juvenile delinquency. New York: The Common-wealth Fund.
15.
Gottfredson, M. R. , & Hirschi, T. (1990). A general theory of crime. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.
16.
Hare, R. D. (1991). The Hare psychopathy checklist—Revised. Toronto: Multi-Health Systems.
17.
Hare, R. D. (1996). Psychopathy: A clinical construct whose time has come. Criminal Justice and Behavior, 23, 25-54.
18.
Harpur, T. J. , Hare, R. D., & Hakstian, A. R. (1989). Two-factor conceptualisation of psychopathy: Construct validity and assessment implications. Psychological Assessment: A Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 1, 6-17.
19.
Hart, S. D. , & Hare, R. D. (1994). Psychopathy and the big five: Correlations between observers' ratings of normal and pathological personality. Journal of Personality Disorders, 8, 32-40.
20.
Hirschi, T. R. (1978). Causes and prevention of juvenile delinquency. Sociological Inquiry, 47, 322-341.
21.
Hodgins, S. (1995). Major mental disorders and crime: An overview. Psychology, Crime, and Law, 2, 5-17.
22.
Hodgins, S. , & Côté, G. (1993). The criminality of mentally disordered offenders. Criminal Justice and Behavior, 20, 115-129.
23.
Hodgins, S. , Côté, G., & Toupin, J. (1996). Major mental disorders and crime: An etiological hypothesis. In D. J. Cooke, A. E. Forth, J. Newman, & R. D. Hare (Eds.), International perspectives on psychopathy. Issues in criminological and legal psychology, No. 24 (pp. 74-80). Leicester, UK: British Psychological Society.
24.
Hogan, R. , & Jones, W. H. (1983). A role-theoretical model of criminal conduct. In W. S. Laufer & J. M. Day (Eds.), Personality theory, moral development, and criminal behavior (pp. 125-152). Lexington, MA: Lexington Books.
25.
Kiesler, D. J. (1996). Contemporary interpersonal theory and research: Personality, psychopathology, and psychotherapy. New York: John Wiley.
26.
Krueger, R. F. , Caspi, A., Moffitt, T. E., Silva, P. A., & McGee, R. (1996). Personality traits are differentially linked to mental disorders: A multitrait-multidiagnosis study of an adolescent birth cohort. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 105, 299-312.
27.
Leary, T. (1957). Interpersonal diagnosis of personality. New York: Ronald.
28.
Mental Health Act. (1983). London: Department of Health.
29.
McCrae, R. R. , & Costa, P. T. (1989). The structure of interpersonal traits: Wiggins Circumplex and the five-factor model. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 56, 586-595.
30.
Morey, L. C. (1985). An empirical classification of interpersonal and DSM-III approaches to classification of personality disorders. Psychiatry, 48, 358-363.
31.
Rasmussen, K. , & Levander, S. (1996). Symptoms and personality characteristics of patients in a maximum security psychiatric unit. International Journal of Law and Psychiatry, 19, 27-37.
32.
Rice, M. E. , & Harris, G. T. (1992). A comparison of criminal recidivism among schizophrenic and nonschizophrenic offenders. International Journal of Law and Psychiatry, 15, 397-408.
33.
Soldz, S. , Budman, S., Demby, A., & Merry, J. (1993). Representation of personality disorders in circumplex and five-factor space: Explorations with a clinical sample. Psychological Assessment, 5, 41-52.
34.
Taylor, P. J. (1985). Motives for offending among violent and psychotic men. British Journal of Psychiatry, 147, 491-498.
35.
Wiggins, J. S. (1982). Circumplex models of interpersonal behavior in clinical psychology. In P. C. Kendall & J. N. Butcher (Eds.), Handbook of research methods in clinical psychology (pp. 183-221). New York: John Wiley.
36.
Wiggins, J. S. (1991). Agency and communion as conceptual co-ordinates for the understanding and measurement of interpersonal behavior. In W. M. Grove & D. Cicchetti (Eds.), Thinking clearly about psychology: Essays in honor of Paul E. Meehl (Vol. 2, pp. 89-113). Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
37.
Wiggins, J. S. , & Broughton, R. (1991). A geometric taxonomy of personality scales. European Journal of Personality, 5, 343-365.
38.
Wiggins, J. S. , & Pincus, A. L. (1989). Conceptions of personality disorders and dimensions of personality. Psychological Assessment: A Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 1, 305-316.
39.
Wiggins, J. S. , & Trapnell, P. D. (1996). A dyadic-interactional perspective on the five-factor model. In J. S. Wiggins (Ed.), The five-factor model of personality; Theoretical perspectives (pp. 88-162). New York: Guilford.
40.
Wilson, J. Q. , & Herrnstein, R. S. (1985). Crime and human nature. New York: Simon & Schuster.
