Criminal Attitudes of Adult Ex-Offenders with regard to Personality and Influence of Anti-Social Friends

Background: Social Learning Theory argues that individuals who enter prison with a low level of antisocial attitudes will develop more deviant thoughts with the passage of time due to their criminal associations in prison, and additionally the presence of antisocial personality may be sufficient for development of criminal thinking style.
Aims: To explore the influence of personality and criminal friends are able to understand criminal attitudes, and which of the variables have the most significant impact on the development of criminal attitudes.
Method: The Measure of Criminal Attitudes and Associates together with Eysenck Personality Questionnaire and Recidivism Scale were distributed to Ex-Offender sample (N=60).
Results: Regression analysis indicated the significant role of personality, criminal associates, and recidivism in the development of criminal attitudes.
Conclusions: The findings suggest that personality should be examined further with regards to its role to recidivism and the formation to criminal attitudes.