Introduction to Personality and Individual Differences

Abstract

In this book we attempt to give a factual account of the causes of criminality, a term we understand to mean the entire social behavior of people who violate the laws of their country. This is not a book on crime, which would have to be much more inclusive, taking into account sociological, economic, judicial, political, and other factors. We have concentrated on psychological causes of crime, not only because as psychologists we are more competent to deal with these factors, but also because we believe that they have been relatively neglected in recent years and require explicit statement and justification. This we have tried to provide. It should be noted that our concentration on psychological causes should not be interpreted to mean that other factors are not important, or do not require study.