Personal Characteristics of Men Newly Sentenced to Imprisonment Related to the Time Interval between Two Convictions

The article presents the results of an empirical study conducted on a sample of convicted men serving sentences in places of deprivation of liberty with a second criminal record (70 individuals with a short time interval between crimes and 70 with a long one). The aim of the study is to identify intergroup differences in indicators of delinquency, adaptability, and meaningfulness of life, as well as to establish correlations between these personal characteristics and the time interval between convictions. The research objectives were: 1) to conduct psychodiagnostics using methods from the Psychometrics database, including a combined methodology for assessing delinquency, the Adaptability questionnaire by A.G. Maklakov and S.V. Chermyanin, and the SOHO Test by D.A. Leontiev; 2) to perform mathematical and statistical processing, including comparative and correlation analyses of the data; 3) to identify intergroup differences and verify their reliability. The characteristics of both groups of convicts are presented based on the data obtained. Significant intergroup differences were noted in specific indicators of the three studied integrative personality characteristics. The study shows that a short time interval between convictions is associated with a propensity to violate norms and rules, impulsivity in character, and lower moral normativity, while it is not related to the meaningfulness of life. In contrast, a long interval correlates with a propensity to lie, volitional self-regulation, communicative potential, and an external locus of control over one’s own life.

1. Antonyan E.A. Lichnost’ retsidivista: kriminologicheskoe i ugolovno-ispolnitel’noe issledovanie: Avtoref. diss. dokt. yurid. nauk. Moscow, 2014. 41 p. (In Russ.).
2. Antonyan Yu.M., Eminov V.E. Portrety prestupnikov: kriminologo-psikhologicheskii analiz: Monografiya. Moscow: INFRA-M, 2019. 240 p. (In Russ.).
3. Bulygina V.G., Dubrovinsky A.V., Belyakova M.Yu., Lysenko N.E. Psikhologicheskie predikaty intervala retsidivnosti [Psychological predictors of “recidivism interval”]. Prikladnaya yuridicheskaya psikhologiya = Applied Legal Psychology, 2016, no. 1 (34), pp. 44–52. (In Russ.).
4. Varygin A.N. Lichnost’ sovremennogo prestupnika: izmeneniya, izuchenie i ponimanie [Criminal Personality Nowadays: Change, Study and Understanding] [Elektronnyi resurs]. Vestnik Kazanskogo yuridicheskogo instituta MVD Rossii = Bulletin of the Kazan Law Institute of MIA of Russia, 2023. Vol. 14, no. 2 (52), pp. 51–56. doi:10.37973/KUI.2023.48.85.007 (In Russ.).
5. Kolomyttsev N.A., Odintsova L.N. Problemy protivodeistviya retsidivnoi prestupnosti v sovremennoi Rossii [Problems of combating recidivism in modern Russia]. Vestnik Vladimirskogo yuridicheskogo instituta = Vestnik Vladimirskogo Yuridicheskogo Instituta, 2022, no. 4 (65), pp. 48–53. (In Russ.).
6. Konopleva I.N., Knyazeva S.O., Debolsky M.G., Krasnenkova S.A. Osobennosti samoregulyatsii u osuzhdennykh, sovershivshikh prestupleniya pri retsidive [Self-Regulation of Convicts Who Have Committed Repeated Crimes] [Elektronnyi resurs]. Psikhologiya i parvo = Psychology and Law, 2022. Vol. 12, no. 2, pp. 27–41. doi:10.17759/psylaw.2022120203 (In Russ.).
7. Kulakova S.V., Tsvetkova N.A. Nauchnoe obespechenie sluzhebnoi deyatel’nosti psikhologov ugolovno-ispolnitel’noi sistemy Rossiiskoi Federatsii: Monografiya. Moscow: FKU NII FSIN Rossii Publ., 2023. 404 p. (In Russ.).
8. Antonyan Yu.M. (Ed.). Lichnost’ prestupnika i profilaktika prestuplenii: Monografiya. Moscow: Prospekt, 2020. 224 p. (In Russ.).
9. Mukhina V.S. Psikhologiya pozhiznenno osuzhdennykh: metamorfozy vnutrennei pozitsii lichnosti [Psychology of life convicted: metamorphoses of person’s inner position]. Razvitie lichnosti = Development of Personality, 2015, no. 3, pp. 213–224. (In Russ.).
10. Nomokonov V.A. Vozvrashchenie lichnostnogo podkhoda neobkhodimo. In Dolgova A.I. (Ed.). Lichnost’ prestupnika i ee kriminologicheskoe izuchenie. Moscow: RKA Publ., 2018, pp. 21–29. (In Russ.).
11. Pozdnyakov Yu.A., Pasynkov V.V. Sovremennoe sostoyanie retsidivnoi prestupnosti v Rossii [The current state of recurrent crime in Russia] [Elektronnyi resurs]. Mezhdunarodnyi zhurnal gumanitarnykh i estestvennykh nauk = International Journal of Humanities and Natural Sciences, 2022, no. 10-3 (73), pp. 158–161. doi:10.24412/2500-1000-2022-10-3-158-161 (In Russ.).
12. Razumova E.M. Psikhologicheskie osobennosti lichnosti prestupnikov-retsidivistov: Diss. kand. psikhol. nauk. Saint Petersburg, 2007. 195 p. (In Russ.).
13. Sechko A.V. Psikhologicheskie faktory retsidivizma i ego profilaktiki (po materialam zarubezhnykh issledovanii) [Psychological conditions for the prevention of recidivism] [Elektronnyi resurs]. Sovremennaya zarubezhnaya psikhologiya = Journal of Modern Foreign Psychology, 2020. Vol. 9, no. 1, pp. 85–93. doi:10.17759/jmfp. 2020090109 (In Russ.).
14. Tit A.A. Razvitie kriminologicheskoi mysli o lichnosti prestupnika za rubezhom [The development of criminological thought about the identity of a criminal abroad]. Vestnik Belgorodskogo yuridicheskogo instituta MVD Rossii im. I.D. Putilina = Vestnik of Putilin Belgorod Law Institute of Ministry of the Interior of Russia, 2022, no. 3, pp. 88–93. (In Russ.).
15. Tsvetkova N.A., Durova E.A. Sredovye i lichnostnye faktory sryva postpenitentsiarnoi resotsializatsii muzhchin, otbyvayushchikh nakazaniya v ispravitel’nom uchrezhdenii po vtoroi sudimosti [Environmental and personal factors of breakdown of post-penitentiary re-socialization of serving second conviction]. Prikladnaya yuridicheskaya psikhologiya = Applied Legal Psychology, 2017, no. 1 (38), pp. 62–69. (In Russ.).
16. Koschmann M.A., Peterson B.L. Rethinking Recidivism: A Communication Approach to Prisoner Reentry. Journal of Applied Social Science, 2013. Vol. 7, no. 2, pp. 188–207. doi:10.1177/1936724412467021
17. Link N., Hamilton L. The Reciprocal Lagged Effects of Substance Use and Recidivism in a Prisoner Reentry Context. Health and Justice, 2017. Vol. 5, no. 1. doi:10.1186/s40352-017-0053-2
18. Sherretts N., Boduszek D., Debowska A., Willmott D. Comparison of murderers with recidivists and first time incarcerated offenders from U.S. prisons on psychopathy and identity as a criminal: An exploratory analysis. Journal of Criminal Justice, 2017. Vol. 51, no. 2, pp. 89–92. doi:10.1016/j.jcrimjus.2017.03.002
19. Uggen C. Ex-offenders and the conformist alternative: a job quality model of work and crime. Social Problems, 1999. Vol. 46, no. 1, pp. 127–151. doi:10.2307/309716525
20. Western B., Braga A.A., Davis J., Sirois C. Stress and Hardship After Prison. American Journal of Sociology, 2015. Vol. 120, no. 5, pp. 1512–1547. doi:10.1086/681301
21. Workman K. The social integration of Māori prisoners. Aotearoa New Zealand Social Work, 2016. Vol. 26, no. 1, pp. 39–46. doi:10.11157/anzswj-vol26iss1id53