CRIMINOLOGICAL RISK FACTORS, PARENTING STYLE, AND PARENTAL BONDING AS PREDICTORS OF PSYCHOPATHY AMONG PRISON INMATES

Abstract

Crime and criminal activities have been increasing globally every day. Studies have shown an association between psychopath and criminal conduct. In fact, adult psychopath have been shown to be responsible for a disproportionate amount of crime in society and are among e most violent and persistent offenders. Studies on psychopath have consistently focused on e prevalence of the act, not on the predictive factors that could lead o such behavioral tendencies among the psycho path have not been adequately explored. The objective of this study therefore, was to investigate the psychological (parenting bonding, parenting style) and criminological (gross income prior to imprisonment, age of emancipation, numbers of times in prison) factors predicting psychopathy among prison inmates. The study was anchored on attachments theory and the psychodynamic theory. The study was cross sectional survey with ex-post factor design. 200 prison inmates were purposively sampled from Agodi prison, Ibadan participated in the study. Data were collected using Parental Authority Questionnaire (PAQ), Parental Bonding Instrument (PBI) and Hare Psychopathy checklist. Collected data were analyzed using descriptive, Anova, T Test and Hierarchical regression at P<.01 and .05. Five hypotheses were tested in the study. The 200 participants were 12 females and 188males with mean age (30.40 years, SD=9.32). The result shows that criminological risk factors, parenting style and parenting bonding predict psychopathy (F(9,195)=2.76 P (0.001)   with 49% variance accounted for by joint prediction of criminological risk factors, parenting bonding and parenting style in the study. Age of emancipation independently predict psychopathy ( =,09 P>0.05). Age of first imprisonment ( =.15, P>0.05), authoritative  parenting style  ( =.04 P>0.05), authoritarian  parenting style(=24, P>0.05)  permissive parenting style (=.06 P>0.05) and parental Bonding (=.06 P>0.05) do not independently predict psychopathy among prison  inmates. Criminological risk factors, parenting bonding and parenting style were significantly predictors of Psychopathy among prison inmates. These factors should be taken into consideration in the development of intervention programs for psychopaths. The intervention program should also be among parents.                                                          Keywords: Psychopathy, Criminological Risk Factors, Parental Bonding, and Parenting Styles