Person. in&id. Diff Vol 5, No. 4, pp. 473474, 1984 0191-8869184 $3.00 + 0.00 Printed in Great Britain. All rights reserved Copyright 0 1984 Pergamon Press Ltd

Personality and female criminals in Bangladesh

ANISUR RAHMAN and AFREEN HUSAIN Department of Psychology, University of Dacca, Dacca 2, Bangladesh

(Received 11 January 1984)

Summary-A study is reported of female criminals at Dacca Jail, using the EPQ standardized in Bangladesh. The Ss of the present investigation were considered as a single group and also divided into groups according to the nature of the crime committed and their age. The major finding that clearly emerged from the study is that the female criminals returned very high P scores. They were also found to have elevated scores on N. It is suggested that the translated version of the EPQ be used with male criminal and psychiatrically-abnormal groups in future studies.

INTRODUCTION

The questions of the Eysenck Personality Questionnaire (EPQ) have been fully re-analysed in other countries with a view to verifying that the scales apply in that culture and items comprising them are appropriate. Rahman and Eysenck (1980) had the EPQ (translated version) standardized in Bangladesh. A new scoring key was arrived at and the scales were curtailed to 21, 16, 22 and 19 items for P, E, N, and L respectively, details are given in Rahman and Eysenck (1980). The reliabilities were all >0.7, so the scales could be used with confidence in this form on the Bangladeshi population, psychiatrically- abnormal or criminal groups, to compare with the norms.

A project was therefore set up to test the theory of criminality advanced by Eysenck (1977). It predicts that criminals would return elevated scores on P or toughmindedness, N or emotionality and E or sociability.

PROCEDURE

A group of 70 female prisoners at Dacca Central Jail, Bangladesh, were tested. The prisoners were between the ages of 19 and 45 yr. The EPO was given to the Ss individually and they were assured that this testing had nothing to do with their sentence and that nobody else, except the investigator, would see the responses. The nature of crime committed by each prisoner was noted from the prison records.

RESULTS

The Ss of the present study were first considered as a single group and then divided into groups according to the nature of crime committed and their age. It is interesting to see the differences between the female criminals and the normative group with respect to the personality dimensions, as demonstrated by Tables l-3.

Table I. EPQ scores of female prisoners compared with norms

Female prisoners

(n = 70) Female norms

(n = 531)

P E N L

6.53 5 2.84 9.47 + 4.22 13.63 & 3.16 Il.81 t 1.21

2.69 + 2.60 9.98 f 3.56 9.52 f 4.51 12.54 k 3.83

Table 2. Comparison of the five offender groups on the EPQ scales

Nature of offence

I. Murder (n = 20) 2. Robbery (n = 25) 3. Prostitution and fraud

(n = 15) 4. Kidnapping (n = 5) 5. Possession of illegal arms

(n = 5) Female norms (n = 531)

P E N L

7.10 f 2.77 6.50 + 3.80 10.85 f 4.72 12.15k2.13 5.72 f 2.06 9.20 + 3.43 12.20 * 3.59 I I .72 f 2.76

5.07 k 2.17 II.87 k 3.56 17.20 f 2.64 12.00+2.13 10.20 f 0.89 13.20 + 1.94 17.20 f 2.23 13.00 f 2.76

9.00 f 2.28 II.80 + 4.26 17.60 f 2.42 9.40 + 0.80 2.69 f 2.60 9.98 + 3.86 9.52 + 4.51 12.54 f 3.83

Table 3. Age and EPQ scores

Age range P E N L

19-30 (n = 50) yr 7.08 It 2.93 10.36 k 3.71 14.64 f 3.98 I I .36 2.49 31-45 (n = 20) yr 5.51 + 2.45

f 6.75 f 4.22 ll.10k4.52 12.95 I .99

Female norms, 1945 f

yr

(n = 531) 2.69 f 2.60 9.98 + 3.56 9.52 k 4.51 12.54 + 3.83

414 NOTES AND SHORTER COMMUNICATIONS

Female prisoners were found to score much higher on P and also higher on N. The average score on L was a bit lower than the norm. This indicates that the comparison group did not dissimulate. Most interesting is the comparative picture

of the criminal groups on the EPQ scores as revealed by Table 2. Table 2 shows that all the different types of criminals scored much higher on P and also higher on N than the norms.

An interesting finding is that the kidnapping group scored the highest on P, followed by the possession-of-illegal-arms group.

Table 3 gives the mean EPQ scores of the Ss divided into younger and older age groups. As expected. the scores returned by the younger group were higher on P, E and N, and lower on L than those of the older group.

DISCUSSION

The findings of the investigation seem to be very interesting. Of particular interest are the elevated scores given by the criminals on the P dimension, this conforms to the results obtained in several other studies (Eysenck and Eysenck, 1970, l971a, b, 1973, 1976, 1977; Eysenck, Rust and Eysenck, 1977). They also returned higher N scores. Their lower L scores suggest that the criminal group did not try to fake the scores.

Among the five offender groups, the kidnapping group scored the highest on P, followed by the possession-of-illegal-arms group. This is expected. A high P scorer is cruel and inhuman, lacking in feeling and empathy and altogether insensitive. Kidnapping is a most heinous crime; the victims are helpless and innocent children. Possession of illegal arms is also a crime of a serious nature because they are dangerous in different ways.

It is further interesting to note that these two groups gave very high scores on N and high scores also on E. The findings with respect to age are also in the expected direction-the younger group scoring higher on P, E and N, and lower on L.

It would be of great interest to test male criminal and psychiatrically-abnormal groups in Bangladesh with the translated version of the EPQ.

REFERENCES

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Eysenck H. J. and Eysenck S. B. G. (1975) Manual of the EPQ (Eysenck Personality Questionnaire). Hodder & Stoughton. London.

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