A survey of psychological features of violence criminals

Document Type : Research Paper

Authors

1 Associate professor of psychology, Faculty of Social Science, Razi University, Kermanshah, Iran

2 MA. student in psychology, Faculty of Social Science, Razi University, Kermanshah, Iran

Abstract

Introduction: Violence as a social problem preoccupies the minds of researchers and the general public. The aim of this study is to explain psychological causes of violence (homicide, strife) and relationship between psychological features and commitment violence actions.
Materials and Methods: The sample of this comparative-analytical study consisted of 223 male violence criminals and financial criminals in Kermanshah, Kurdistan, Ilam provinces and normal people who were selected by using random sampling method. For data collection demographic questionnaire, checklist of symptoms of mental disorder (SCL-90) and semi-structured interviews based on DSM-4 were used, and for data analysis, descriptive statistics, t-test and ANOVA were used by SPSS-22 software.
Results: The results showed significant difference between three groups of subjects in phobia, anxiety, depression, obsessive thoughts, somatization, interpersonal sensitivity, aggression, psychosis, self-esteem and total symptoms (P=0.001) but in the dimensions of paranoia, introversion-extraversion, emotional control and self-confident the differences between groups were not significant (P>0.05).
Conclusion: The results indicate that the criminals groups of violence have more symptoms, and probably morbid symptoms mentioned can be effective in the incidence of aggression that requires special attention in the area of crime.

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