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Eysenck's personality theory of crime

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Are some people born more likely to commit crime? Eysenck (1964) offered a biological explanation based on personality.

Personality dimensions

Eysenck said personality is largely inherited and depends on how our nervous system works.
Extraversion: outgoing, sociable, lively, seeks excitement. Eysenck said extraverts have a nervous system that is under-aroused, so they seek stimulation and risk.
Introversion: the opposite end: quiet, reserved, avoids too much stimulation.
Neuroticism: anxious, moody, emotionally unstable, reacts strongly to stress. The opposite end is emotional stability.
Psychoticism: cold, aggressive, lacking empathy, impulsive and uncaring about others.

Link to crime

Eysenck argued that people high in extraversion, neuroticism and psychoticism are more likely to commit crime.
Extraverts seek thrills and are harder to condition, so they do not learn rules from punishment as easily. Neurotic people react unpredictably and are also hard to condition. High psychoticism links to aggression and lack of guilt.
Personality is measured with a self-report questionnaire, the Eysenck Personality Questionnaire (EPQ).

Strengths and weaknesses

Strengths: personality can be measured with a questionnaire, giving scores to compare. Some studies have found offenders score higher than non-offenders, especially on psychoticism. It combines biology (the nervous system) with learning (conditioning).
Weaknesses: questionnaires rely on self-report, so people may lie or not know themselves well. Personality may change between situations, so it is not fixed. Not everyone with a 'criminal' personality profile offends, and many offenders do not fit the profile. Evidence for extraversion is weaker than for psychoticism.
Worked example

Using Eysenck's theory, explain why a highly extraverted person might be more likely to offend.

  1. Extraverts have an under-aroused nervous system, so they seek excitement and risk.
  2. They are also harder to condition, so punishment teaches them less.

Answer: Their need for stimulation leads to risk-taking, and they learn less from punishment, so crime is more likely.

Key idea

Eysenck said personality is biological. Offenders are thought to be high in extraversion, neuroticism and psychoticism, which makes them seek thrills and harder to condition. Personality can be measured, but self-report is a weakness and many people do not fit the pattern.

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