It is challenging to specify distinctively the causes of an individual committing a crime. Psychologists, however, have devised several theories to explain criminal behavior most of which attribute crime to family, emotional issues and the socio-economic status of the individual as well as the personality traits. According to a study conducted on 69 females convicted of various crimes, maladjusted marital life and relations were identified as a common occurrence in the convicts (Sardina, 2016). Sharma et al. studied a sample of 202 participants, in which 101 were convicted offenders and 101 were matched healthy controls. Offenders group comprised sentenced prisoners for different crimes such as murder, rape, and robbery, selected from Birsa Munda Central Jail, Hotwar, Ranchi, Jharkhand, India, based on purposive sampling. The convicted offenders’ group obtained significantly lower scores on emotional intelligence compared to normal controls. According to Kamaluddin et al. (2015), a review of four distinct psychological traits by an archival research methodology yielded significant outcomes. The results of the investigation showed that the four psychological traits, i.e. low self-control, personality traits, cognitive distortion, and aggressive behavior act as the primary psychological factor underlying criminal behavior within an individual.

Two separate studies were conducted to examine the relationship between the personality traits of individuals and criminal activity.Morizot (2015) conducted one study in New Zealand among female and male 18-year-olds and another study in Pittsburgh involving 12-13-year-old boys from ethnically diverse backgrounds. From the two studies, he found out that there was many personality involvements in the commission of crimes. However, the personality correlates of delinquency varied across gender, age, nationality, and ethnicity. A similar study by Lilienfeld et al. (2014) on 481 male inmates revealed a relationship between self-reported distress and restraint before committing a crime as well as behavior during their imprisonment.Two hundred and eighty of the inmates were ranked to have Antisocial Personality Disorder (APD) according to thePsychopathy Checklist-Revised (PCL-R).From the various studies, there seems to be a correlation between the emotional state of an individual or their traits and criminal behavior.

From the studies conducted, the Arousal Theory of criminal behavior is evident. In the arousal theory, the human brain functions differently in response to various stimuli from the environment of the individual. The surroundings may include people around the individual, the physical surrounding and the emotional climate. The people around an individual influence their personality through interactions. In turn, the personality traits of the person determine their behavior, i.e. their criminal behavior. According to the theory, a person is always trying to achieve an optimum level of arousal from their environment. Little stimuli make the individual bored while too much of the stimuli creates anxiety. It is this anxiety which may result in criminal behavior. The objective of this study will, therefore, be to examine the relationship between the personality traits of an individual and criminal behavior. Thus, the hypothesis is; there is no significant relationship between the personal characteristics of an individual and their criminal behavior.

Ethics refers to a set of principles of right conduct. The researcher ensured that the principles involved in the research code of ethics were observed. The researcher ensured that there was no risk of harming the participants by avoiding putting them in a position of discomfort. Additionally, the researcher will obtain informed consent from the respondents by informing them what the research requires of them. The respondent’s details will also remain anonymous to uphold confidentiality. In the cases of participants belonging to a vulnerable group, the study will collect the data in the presence of family or colleagues of the participant. Similarly, the researcher will avoid falsification of results and acknowledge other people’s ideas through citing to prevent plagiarism.

Validity is a judgment based on various types of evidence about how the scores from a measure represent the variable they are intended to. The researcher will ensure that the questionnaire has aface validity by including questions which measure the psychology of criminal conduct. Besides, the researcher will seek help from criminal psychologists to ensure that the questionnaire has content validity. The researcher will also establish the construct validity of the inquiry to ensure that it can measure the abstract adequately. Also, the researcher will determine the criterion validity to ensure that the measurement tool used can produce accurate findings compared to a standard measure.

Reliability is the consistency of a measure, i.e. the ability to get similar results after repeating the questionnaire.The researcher will administer the poll again after a short period before participants conditions change to establish test-retest reliability. Additionally, the researcher will include some similar questions in the survey and observe whether the responses are identical. The aspect of related questions giving rise to the same answer is the internal consistency of the data. The researcher will also establish inter-rater reliability by observing whether the assessment of the same thing by different individuals similarly score the questionnaire.

References

Kamaluddin MR, Shariff NS, Othman A, Ismail KH, Saat GA. Linking psychological traits with criminal behavior: A review. Asean J Psychiatry. 2015;16:135–47.

Morizot, J. (2015). 10 The Contribution of Temperament and Personality Traits to Criminal and Antisocial Behavior Development and Desistance. The development of criminal and antisocial behavior (pp. 137-165). Springer, Cham.

Lilienfeld, S. O., Latzman, R. D., Watts, A. L., Smith, S. F., & Dutton, K. (2014). Correlates of psychopathic personality traits in everyday life: Results from an extensive community survey. Frontiers in psychology, 5, 740.

Sardina, A. D. (2016). A qualitative study of convicted female child sex offenders: Examining motivation and attribution of meaning (Doctoral dissertation, Indiana University).

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