PERSONALITY AND RETALIATION AS PREDICTORS OF CRIMINAL BEHAVIOUR AMONG MURDER SUSPECTS IN AGODI PRISON, IBADAN.

Authors

  • POPOOLA O A Department of Psychology, University of Ilorin
  • FAWORAJA O R Department of Psychology, University of Ilorin
  • OYELEKE J T Department of Psychology, University of Ilorin
  • OGUNTAYO R Department of Psychology, University of Ilorin
  • FAGBAMILA D O Department of Psychology, University of Ilorin
  • OPAYEMI A S Department of Psychology, University of Ilorin

Keywords:

Personality Traits, Retaliation, Criminal behaviour, Inmates, Agodi prison.

Abstract

This study investigated personality traits and retaliation as predictors of criminal behaviour among murder suspects in Agodi prison, Ibadan. The independent variables are Personality traits and retaliation while the dependent variable is criminal behaviour. The study was conducted in Ibadan city adopting the expo facto design. Purposive sampling technique was used to sample 151 participants consisting of 141 males, 10 females. The Big Five Personality Inventory by Gerlitz and Schupp (2005), Retaliation scale developed by Mccullough, Root and Cohen (1998), and Rashwan (2003)’s criminal Behaviour scale (BSC) were the instruments used in the study. Mean scores, frequencies, percentages, Pearson's correlation, t test for independent and multiple regressions were used for analysis. The results disclosed that while males scored higher than females on criminal behaviour t (149= 7.999; P<.01), participants with higher scores on extraversion personality traits were also scored higher on criminal behaviour compared to individuals with lower scores on extraversion t(149)=2.248; P<.05). Also, age, sex, marital status, crime committed, duration and type of sentence jointly predict criminal behaviour(R=.378; R2=.143’F (5,125) =3.492; P<.05). However, sex independently predicted criminal behaviour (B=.34; t=4.214; p<.01).  The implication of these findings is to inform the government and general society about the need for psychologists to be involved in the rehabilitation process of individual inmates in prison; offenders should be reported to psychologists for therapy instead of huge corporal punishment alone. This is because the reasons for some of these behaviours are psychological and as such require psychological interventions in addition to their sentence.

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

References

Blumer, H. (1969). Symbolic Interactionism; Perspective and Method. Englewood Cliffs; Prentice- Hall.

Brandon, H., & Richard A.W. (1999). Symbolic closure through Memory, Reparation and Revenge in post-conflict

Societies (Johannesburg); Centre for the study of violence and Reconciliation).

Chambliss, W. & R. Seidman. 1971. Law, Order and Power. Reading, MA: Addison Wesley.

Daily Trust Newspaper, July 1, 2017). Prisoners in Nigeria. Retrieved from; https://

www.dailytrust.com. Ng/nes/editorial/2-Prisoners-in-Nigeria/18909.html on 01/07/2017

Daly, M. (1995). Children delinquency and risks of not living with both parents. Ethology and Sociobiology, 6, 199–

Daly, M., &Wilson, M. (1985). Child abuse and other risks of not living with both parents. Ethology and Sociobiology,

, 197–210.

Daly, M., & Wilson, M. (1988). Homicide. New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction Publishers.

Daly, M., & Wilson, M. (1990). Killing the competition: Female/female and male/male homicide. Human Nature, 1, 81–

Dambazau, A. B. (2007) Criminology and criminal justice: 2nd edition Ibadan, Nigeria. Spectrum Books Ltd.

Denno, D.W,(1994). Gender, Crime and the Criminal Law Defenses. Retrieved from

http://scholarlycommons.law.orthwestern.edu.jclc on 01/07/2017

Dennison, S. M., Stough, C., & Birgden, A. (2001). The Big 5 dimensional personality approach to understanding sex

offenders. Psychology, Crime and Law, 7, 243-261.

Ellis, A., Nussbaum; Mike A., & Lidia D.A. (2009). Personality theories; Critical perspectives (2nd print. Ed.). Los

Angeles; SAGE publications.

Francis, B., Soothill, K., & Fligelstone, R. (2004) ‘Identifying patterns and pathways of offending behaviour: A new

approach to typologies of crime’ European Journal of Criminology Vol. 1, No. 1 pp47-87.

Funder, D. (2001). ‘Personality’ Annual Review of Psychology, 52 (1); 197-221.

Heaven, P. C. L. (1996). Personality and self-reported delinquency: Analysis of the “Big Five†personality dimensions.

Personality and Individual Differences, 20, 47-54.

Kenrick, D.T. & Sheets, D. (1994). The attractiveness of gender-typed traits at different relationship levels:

Androgynous characteristics may be desirable after all. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 20 (3),

-253.

Krauskopt, C.J. and Sanders, D.R., (1994). Personality and Ability: The personality assessment system. University

press of America, Lanham, Maryland.

Nirmala, G.K. ( 2009). Criminology Teaching Material. Prepared under the Sponsorship of the Justice and Legal

System Research Institute, Nigeria.

Oshinowo, H.O. (1982), Demographic predictors of deviant behaviour. Retrieved from

www.shodhganga.inflitbnet.ac.in/.../09_....09 o 01/07/2017

Quinney, R. (l970). Critique of Legal Order: Crime Control in Capitalist Society. Boston: Little, Brown.

Rashwan, D. (2003). Psychoanalytic theory of crime. Oxford; Oxford University Press.

Sandtromck, J.W. (2008). The Self, Identity, and Personality. In Mike Ryan(Ed). A topical Approach to Life-spam

Development. (p.411-412). New York McGraw- Hill.

Yakolev- Golani, H. (2012). ‘Revenge- the Volcano of Despair’; ‘The story of the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict’. Exploring

the facets of Revenge. P.83.

Oluwadare, C.T. & Agoola, A.E. (2011). Geder Disparity in Criminal Behaviour in Ado-Ekiti, Nigeria. Africa Research

Review,(5) 199-211. Ethiopia.

Phares, E. J.& Chaplinn, W. F. (1979). Introduction to Personality. (4th ed.). New York: Longman, 8-9.

Prison Rehabilitation and Welfare Action, (2000). Nigeria prison service and penal reform in Nigeria: a synthesis

study compiled by PRAWA for the safety security and access of justice programme of the department of

international development (DFID) U.K.

Summer, Y. (1994). Crime and Gender. Journal of criminal law and criminology, (84), 99-104.

Tuck, A. (1969). Criminality and Legal Order. Chicago: Rand McNally and Company.

Vangaurd, (October 16, 2016). Nigeria on the brink of another terrorism in Shiites. Retrieved

from: http://www.vanguardngr.com/2016/11/nigeria-brink-another-terrorism-shiites/ on 05/07/2017

Williams, R. J. (1955). The biological approach to the study of personality. In T. Millon (Ed.), Theories of

psychopathology and personality (2nd ed., 29–38). Philadelphia: Saunders.

Wilson, M., & Daly, M. (1995). Competitiveness, risk taking, and violence: The young male syndrome. Ethology and

Sociobiology, 6, 59–73.

Wilson,M., &Daly,M. (1993). Homicide risk and estrangement. Violence and Victims, 8, 3–16.

Downloads

Published

2017-10-27

Issue

Vol. 20 No. 3 (2017): AFRICAN JOURNAL FOR THE PSYCHOLOGICAL STUDIES OF SOCIAL ISSUES

Section

Articles

License

Copyright is owned by the journal.