Theory and Philosophy Commons^™

Personality Differences In Predicting Assault And Binge Drinking: Variation Across Explanatory Factors And Gender, Allison De Franco

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

General theories of offending seem to be favored in recent criminological literature, with the assumption being that the same factor(s) cause all forms of deviance and criminality. However, there is a case to be made for crime-specific models that predict different types of individuals will commit varying forms of deviant behavior. Using survey data collected from 108 female and 116 male college students, we measured their levels of various personality traits–empathy, guilt, detachment, and externalization–as well as their incidence of assault and binge drinking over the previous year. It was predicted that detachment and/or externalization would have significant positive associations …