Personality & crime : linked? : a professional's perspective

Abstract

This research is a qualitative study exploring the relationship between personality and crime from the perspective of professionals. A qualitative research approach utilising the Interpretative Phenomenological Approach to analyse the data was adopted. Six semi structured interviews were conducted with psychologists involved in the criminal justice system. The analysis concluded that occurrence of crime mainly depends upon the type of exposure a person gets in their life which could ultimately affect the development of personality. They can go through desistence by getting appropriate therapy, but crime can re-occur if the conditions become unfavourable again or if therapy has been inadequate or short-lasted.