Criminalidade feminina : características de personalidade e experiências de adversidade

Abstract

Background: There’s a lack of studies, particularly at the national level, on female criminal practices, and it’s possible to perceive that certain personality characteristics and adversities throughout life are factors that are linked to antisocial behaviours and attitudes, and consequently to criminality. However, there are still few studies that seek to simultaneously analyse the role of these two dimensions in female crime. Objective: Analyse whether women who committed violent and non-violent crimes have a history of childhood adversity and how they are characterized in terms of personality, in order to better understand and analyse this problematic. Method: The study includes a sample of 138 female inmates convicted of violent and non-violent crimes. A sociodemographic and criminal questionnaire, Childhood Trauma Questionnaire – Short Version and Ten-Item Personality Inventory were administered. Hierarchical logistic regressions were performed for data analysis. Results: High extroversion seems to be associated with an increase in the possibility of committing a violent crime, while the possibility of committing criminal violence decreases with the increase in emotional abuse and openness to experience, with the variations observed in the possibility of committing a crime. Violent crimes are superior in the case of personality characteristics. Furthermore, the cumulative effect of various types of child abuse is not significant for female criminal violence. Conclusion: In this study, the possibility of perpetrating a violent crime seems to be more related to personality characteristics than to the adversity suffered in childhood. More particularly, increased likelihood of committing a violent crime is associated with increased extroversion, reduced openness to experience, and reduced emotional abuse, although the latter has a lower impact.

Date of Award	2023
Original language	Portuguese
Supervisor	Ana Rita Conde Dias (Supervisor)