Delinquency as predicted by dark triad factors and demographic variables

Abstract

Delinquency is a social problem attributed to the psychological developments and derived cultural traits prevalent in the society. Questionnaires were used to collect the primary data. Out of a total 203 youths participated in this study, delinquent group consisted of 107 participants, whereas the nondelinquentgroup consisted of 96 participants scoring high on Machiavellianism, narcissism, and psychopathy. To evaluate how people responded to the questions, different methods such as analysis of variance (ANOVA), multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA), discriminate analysis, and standard deviation were used. Machiavellianism increased with an increase in delinquency levels. Narcissism score was observed high among medium delinquent group as compared to the nondelinquent group. Psychopathy was high among high delinquency group. Although narcissists are moderate delinquents, they are more likely to commit a crime. While females are becoming more delinquent, Machiavellianismis manipulative. Financial income, age, gender, and education are determinants of dark triad factors in adolescents.

Keywords

• delinquency
• delinquent behaviour
• machiavellianism
• psychopathy
• narcissism