The Effect of Personality Traits on Criminal Behaviour

Bui Thi Hong Viet 1, Nguyen Thi Le Thuy 2,

Duong Thuy Linh 3, & Tran Van Ha 4

https://doi.org/10.62271/pjc.16.4.1059.1073

Abstract

The extensive investigation into criminal careers, coupled with the growing consensus around the Five-Factor Model of personality traits, has reaffirmed the significance of personality assessments as reliable indicators of criminal behaviour. Several research studies on specialised groups have determined that agreeableness, conscientiousness, neuroticism, and extraversion are associated with criminal behaviour. This study examines the relationship between the probability of committing a crime and various personality qualities, including Agreeableness, Extraversion, Conscientiousness, Openness, Neuroticism, and demographic variables associated with crime criminologists. The data was obtained by surveying 916 ordinary people and detainees in Vietnam. For the detainees, participants must be older than 18 years old, have been convicted of the crime of aggravated murder, and have followed at least five years of education. While ordinary people also must be older than 18 years old and do not have a history of crime records. The findings show that there is a different correlation between each personality trait and the probability of committing a crime. Besides, demographic factors also play a relatively insignificant impact in predicting criminal behaviour.

Keywords: Five-Factor Model, OCEAN model, personality traits, criminal behaviour, Vietnam.