The Emotionally Disturbed Military Criminal Offender

Abstract

The purpose of the present study was to investigate the personality characteristics, demographic, psychiatric, and criminal background, and current institutional adjustment of a sample of emotionally disturbed criminal offenders. Subjects were 43 emotionally disturbed and 43 nondisturbed military male inmates matched on age, confining offense, and length of sentence. Results indicated that the emotionally disturbed offenders committed more crimes against persons, fewer drug offenses, and were more likely to be divorced compared with the general population of inmates. Relative to control inmates, emotionally disturbed offenders achieved more highly elevated MMPI profiles, were rated as more disturbed behaviorally, evidenced a more extensive history of family and personal psychiatric difficulty, and demonstrated poorer adjustment to incarceration. Recommendations for future research in this area are discussed.