Criminological Aspects of Aggression

Abstract

The results of a retrospective study of groups of convicts with varying degrees of aggressive behavior show the possibilities of the Standardized Multifactorial Personality Research Method (SMIL, the Russian version of MMPI), the interpretive approach of which is based on the one created by L.N. Sobchik theory of leading trends in assessing the degree of aggressiveness corresponding to the severity of the committed act. The leading tendencies, according to the average profiles of SMIL, are determined: among "hooligans" impulsivity with weakly expressed aggressiveness and unformed self-control; the "robbers" have rigidity, readiness for illegal behavior; in "killers" the severity of aggressiveness (in the hyperthymic type, explosive features and properties of expansive-schizoid accentuation; in the hypersthenic type, exaltation, overestimated self-esteem, an outwardly blaming type of response; in persons with impulse pathology, a partial violation in the sexual sphere with preserved intelligence); for “corrupt officials”: the profile is in the corridor of normative dispersion, but self-esteem and ideas about their own material well-being are directly proportional; in minors, aggression acts as a hypercompensation of an insecure personality with pseudo-aggressive actions.

Keywords

• aggressiveness
• psychodiagnostics
• crime
• the identity of the offender
• minors
• crime prevention