The Comparison of Personality Traits and Cognitive Components of Emotion Regulation among Female Offenders and Typical Females

Crime is a phenomenon as old as human history and an inevitable fact. The purpose of this study was to compare personality traits and cognitive components of emotion regulation among female offenders and typical females in Yasuj.

This study is of a descriptive-analytical type and in the field of post-incident research. The statistical population of all female offenders detained in Yasouj prison during the winter and autumn of 2017 who were arrested by the crimes of homicide, robbery, drug, carrying cold weapons, etc. The female participants were selected among the offenders and non-offenders using matching sampling method. The data were collected using NEO five-factor personality questionnaire and Garnowski's Emotional Cognitive Questionnaire and analyzed using one-way ANOVA and SPSS software.

The results showed that there was a significant difference between the two groups of typical females and female offenders in terms of neuroticism, responsibility and conscientiousness. But in terms of responsibility and conscientiousness, the mean scores of the female offender group were lower than those of the normal females. Other results showed that there was a significant difference between the two groups in maladaptive cognitive emotion regulation strategies (self-blame, rumination, catastrophe, and blaming others) and mean score of female offender group was higher than normal female group and the mean score of female offender adaptive cognitive emotion regulation strategies is less than normal females.

The results of the study emphasize that females' personality traits such as high neuroticism, poor responsiveness and morality, and difficulty in understanding and regulating appropriate emotional reactions as acquired traits can be helpful in identifying and conceptualizing the cause of crime occurrence and planning for social damage prevention.