The Personality of Female Prisoners
SYBIL B. G. EYSENCK B.Sc., Ph.D.1 and
HANS J. EYSENCK B.A., Ph.D., D.Sc.2
1 Senior Lecturer in Psychology, Institute of Psychiatry, De Crespigny Park, London, SE5 8AF
2 Professor of Psychology, Institute of Psychiatry, De Crespigny Park, London, SE5 8AF
A study is reported of 264 female prisoners, in which they were administered personality questionnaires purporting to measure psychoticism, neuroticism and extraversion. Various normal female control groups were also tested, and the results compared with questionnaire responses of male prisoners and male control groups. It was found that female prisoners are characterized by high P scores, high N scores and high E scores; in all these aspects results are as predicted from Eysenck's theory of criminal behaviour. One unexpected finding was the discovery of P scores among the female prisoners which were in excess of those found among male prisoners, although in the control groups, females have very much lower P scores than males. This finding may be related to the psychiatric observation of much greater instability in female than in male prison populations.
Submitted on January 16, 1973
