Overcontrolled Hostility, Empathy, and Egocentric Balance in Violent and Nonviolent Psychiatric Offenders

Abstract

Psychiatric offenders, divided into five groups on the basis of their criminal charges (murder, assault with a deadly weapon, rape, pedophilia, nonviolent property offenses), were administered the overcontrolled hostility scale, a measure of emotional empathy as well as a self-focus sentence-completion test. Data were also obtained regarding aggressive behavior of the 115 subjects during the course of hospitalization. Contrary to predictions, none of the paper-and-pencil measures discriminated significantly between offender groups and the canonical correlation between criminal charges and scores on the personality measures was only of low moderate value. Implications of results regarding suitable measures and future research strategies are discussed.