Hans Eysenck's theory on the 'causes' and 'cures' of criminality: A personal reflection

Hans Eysenck's theory of criminality was first published in 1964 and evolved over the next 30 years. The principal theme of his work is that psychological factors and individual differences are related to personality, namely Psychoticism (P), Extraversion (E) and Neuroticism (N), which are of central importance in relation to both the causes of crime and its control. His theory generated a great deal of research, which has provided mixed support with regard to E and N. In contrast, P has consistently been shown to discriminate between offenders and controls, and predict the extent and severity of offending, but the nature of P is ambiguous and it has poor explanatory power. The relationship between these three 'super traits' and criminality is more complex than his theory predicts. A further limitation of Eysenck's theory is that the 'causes' of crime, as determined by P, E and N, do not translate adequately into 'cure' or the prevention of offending. Normally distributed personality traits are of limited value in predicting offending and the focus has shifted on more tangible and persistent signs/symptoms of antisocial personality traits/disorder and attitudes that are amenable to intervention.