Psychological profile of rapists

Abstract

This paper is a part of a more comprehensive research in which we have attempted to determine cognitive and conative structure of personality of crime perpetrators applying cybernetic model of personality dimensions. The problem of research was to determine which psychosocial dimensions characterize rapists. The goal of the paper was to determine whether it was possible to make a psychological profile of perpetrators involved in sexual crimes, which could enable for better insight into the nature of this specific form of aggressive behavior. We have assumed that certain personality dimensions influence not only the fact that someone will become a crime perpetrator but also the fact what kind of crime he will be involved in. For instance, we believed that personality committing sexual crimes would show considerable aberrations of cognitive dimensions (in comparison with other perpetrators), as well as the following conative dimensions anxiety, aggressiveness and psychopathy. 314 adult male convicts were examined by adequate methods which included a cybernetic personality model they were grouped according to the crimes for which they had been convicted. The results obtained by methods of non-linear canonic correlation analysis showed that the main characteristic of a rapist is cognitive insufficiency and conative dysfunction expressed through disturbed system for coordination of regulatory function, and which is determined as psychopath to the largest extent. These are anal aggressive types, who demonstrate their destruction in impulsive and uncontrolled manner.

Ovaj rad je deo jednog obimnijeg istraživanja u kome smo nastojali da primenom kibernetičkog modela dimenzija ličnosti utvrdimo kognitivni i konativni sklop ličnosti prestupnika koji se bave kriminalnim ponašanjem. Problem istraživanja je bio da odredimo koje psihosocijalne dimenzije odlikuju počinitelje krivičnog dela silovanja. Cilj rada bio je da se utvrdi da li je moguće formirati psihološki profil prestupnika koji čine seksualne delikte, što bi omogućilo bolji uvid u prirodu ove specifične vrste agresivnog ponašanja.