Personality and self-reported delinquency in young adults

H. J. Eysenck's (1964) personality theory predicts that the high Psychoticism, Neuroticism and Extraversion personality combination is over-represented in criminal populations. However, more recent studies have not provided unanimous support for this theory. The aim of this study is to test the relationship between personality assessed by the EPQ and the SSS, and Self-reported Delinquency in young adults of both sexes. The current study used an alternative design consisting of three groups of subjects of similar age with different degrees of anti-social behaviour: a normative group of undergraduates, a group of subjects from high schools with a high number of problem students, and a group of imprisoned youngsters. The results show a positive relationship between Self-reported Delinquency and Psychoticism. With regards to Extraversion, this dimension seems to be better estimated by a trait measure such as the Sensation Seeking Scale and its subscales. With respect to Neuroticism, it shows a positive relationship with Self-reported Delinquency although it only reached significance among males.