Ideas about Remorse among Women Serving Sentences in a Correctional Institution

Abstract

In order to identify the specifics of women’s perceptions of remorse in correctional institutions, a psychosemantic study was conducted using the method of repertoire evaluation grid. The main group consisted of 20 women serving their sentence in the penal colony of the Federal Penitentiary Service of Russia and the control group consisted of 22 women without criminal records. The elements and constructs of the evaluation grid constituted the associations (nouns and adjectives) of the surveyed persons with the concept of "remorse". According to the results of the factor analysis, two main components each were identified in both groups, which were interpreted as “Emotional attitude” and “Sincerity of experience”. The comparative analysis of semantic spaces of the main and control groups, constructed by the results of factor and cluster analyses, shows that convicted women have a significantly reduced concept of remorse: it reflects only the cognitive aspect - awareness of guilt, and does not contain the emotional and meaningful attitude to the offense in the form of regret and experience formed as a result of awareness.