The study examined relationships between attachment, childhood experiences, sensation seeking, and criminal behavior among 348 female inmates. Measures of attachment, adverse childhood events, alcohol use, and sensation seeking were administered and correlated with criminal behaviors. Preliminary results found several scales significantly correlated with number of crimes, including risk taking behaviors, adverse childhood events, experiences of partner abuse, and insecure attachments. Further path analyses may provide a more complex model of criminality accounting for different types of crimes.

1. Ashtin M. Adkins, M.A.
Marshall University

2.  The female inmate population is the fastest growing
population within the criminal justice system.
 Between 1977 and 2004, the number of female inmates
increased by 757%, and this is double the rate of
increase among incarcerated males.

3.  The importance of a child’s relationship to his/her parents
in the development of criminal behavior represents one of
the older accounts of criminality. Support for this set of
theories has been documented by criminologists such as
Hirschi (1969) and psychologists such as Bowlby (1944).
Hirschi (1969) suggested that we obey societal rules
because we have social controls that bind us to
conventional society. These social controls demand
conformity to its standards. It was said that it is the
strength of the fear of losing these social bonds that drives
us either toward or away from lives of crime. Thus,
according to this theory, when socialization to parents and
society is poor, then the bonds are likely to be weak. This
means that an individual may fail to internalize the
conventions of society.

4.  Gottfredson and Hirschi (1990) replaced the idea of
continuing social bonds with an emphasis instead on
self control in the abstinence from crime. Such
control was said to come from relations with parents in
a rule governed family. Thus, Hirschi presented two
theories concerning the development of crime, and
each set forth different paths in a criminal lifestyle.

5.  A more recent version of social control/bond theory has come
from the work Sampson and Laub (1993; 2005) and Sampson
Laub, & Wimer (2006). They suggested that variables such as
parental separation, divorce, family size, and marriage are all
important predictors of the development of criminal behavior.
They also suggested that the child factors such as difficult
temperament, can in turn affect the social controls afforded by
the parents. Although it is these kinds of dichotomous variables
that have been the focus of most criminological theories, they
reasoned that it is the quality rather than just the presence or
absence of these relationships that is most important. However,
this and other social bond and control theories have ignored the
different kinds of relationships such as those to mothers, fathers,
partners, or peers which might be important at different times in
development (Shanahan, McHale, Crouter, & Osgood, 2007).

6.  Although there are several versions of strain theory, at the core of all of them is
the notion that stressors and strains cause people to act out in criminal
behavior. In contrast to the earlier theories of Durkheim (1897/1951), Cohen
(1955, 1988). Merton (1957), Clowaard and Ohlin(1960), and Agnew (1992)
suggested that strains are neither structural nor interpersonal but individual
and emotional. He reasoned that one’s perceived failure to achieve positively
valued goals or stimuli, and/or the presentation of negative stimuli is the chief
sources of strain. Strain in turn is theorized to create anger and
frustration, and these lead to negative relationships and criminal behaviors. It
was held that these strains will in turn increase one’s alienation from society
and increase criminal behavior in a spiral of desistance. Agnew (1992; 2005;
2006) suggested that research should focus on the magnitude, duration, and
clustering of such strain-related events to determine whether a person copes
with strain in a criminal or conforming manner. Thus, the chief predictors of
crime should be found in strain producing events during development. The
factors theorized to moderate reactions to strain were
temperament, intelligence, interpersonal skills, self-efficacy, the presence of
conventional social support, and the absence of association with antisocial
(e.g., criminally inclined) age and status peers.

7.  Another set of theories suggested to be related to various forms
of crime comes from the sensation seeking and risk taking
models of desistance. This suggests that an individual might be
born with a tendency to like the risks and thrills he/she gets from
engaging in dangerous behaviors (Zuckerman, 1994).
Zuckerman (2007) found that risk taking behaviors such as
driving recklessly, engaging in sports, drugs, sex, and gambling
are correlated across activities. Zuckerman has reasoned that
because crime, delinquency, and aggression are correlated with
alcohol and drug use as well as gambling, risky sex, and general
social nonconformity, there must be a common factor
underlying all of them. The common factor was labeled
“sensation seeking.” Sensation seeking is a trait defined by the
seeking of varied, novel, complex, and intense situations and
experiences.

8.  Identify attachment and clinical issues among female
prisoners
 Introduce a comprehensive theory of criminality that
better predicts criminal activities
 Provide evidence to create more individualized
treatments to better reduce rates of recidivism.

9.  Participants
 A total of 348 females were recruited on a volunteer
basis from the Lakin Women’s Correctional Center in
Point Pleasant, West Virginia. Of these women, 20 of
them became confused with the numbering of the
questions, 24 did not finish for unknown reasons, and 11
did not consent to participate. The total number of
questionnaires utilized for the subsequent analyses was
293. Their ages ranged from 18 years upward.

10.  Instruments
 Five different measures were administered to the
participants for a total of 319 questions. The following
measures were administered to the participants:
 Attachment & Clinical Issues Questionnaire (ACIQ)
 CAGE Questionnaire
 Adverse Childhood Events Questionnaire (ACE)
 Brief Sensation-Seeking Screening 4 (BSSS-4)
 Sensation Seeking 2 (SS-2)

11.  Attachment and Clinical Issues Questionnaire
(ACIQ)
 The ACIQ is a test battery containing 29 scales
measuring attachment and related clinical issues. It
includes scales measuring avoidant, anxious resistant,
codependent/preoccupied, and secure attachments to
mother, father, and partner on continuous scales.

12.  CAGE Questionnaire
 The CAGE is named in reference to its four questions
that pertain to cutting back on drinking, feeling
annoyed that others ask you to cut back on drinking,
feeling guilty about drinking, and needing a drink first
thing in the morning (eye-opener). The CAGE is a brief
screening measure used to detect alcoholism.

13.  Adversive Childhood Events Questionnaire (ACE)
 The ACE Questionnaire contains several questions
pertaining to aversive childhood experiences, such as
recurrent physical abuse, emotional abuse, and sexual
abuse. It contains questions about whether the
household in which a person grew up contained an
alcohol or drug abuser, someone who engaged in
criminal behavior, and/or someone with a mental
illness.

14.  Brief Sensation Seeking Screening - 4 (BSSS-4)
 The BSSS-4 is a short assessment tool pertaining to an
individual’s level of sensation seeking. It has been found
to predict risk taking behaviors among those of different
ages, particularly with regard to risk taking behaviors
pertaining to drug and alcohol.
 Sensation Seeking – 2 (SS-2)
 The two items on this measure relate to the risk taking
and excitement aspects of sensation seeking. It has an
overall focus on personal dispositions toward risky and
exciting types of behaviors.

15.  Procedures
 Participants were tested in groups of approximately 25 over
the course of two days. Each group was read each item on the
questionnaire by a test proctor, and the first ten items were
read twice. The participants were asked not to work ahead,
and at least one proctor walked around the room to ensure
that the participants were not moving on prematurely. The
additional proctor was available to answer any questions that
were raised. The participants answered each question on a
scantron sheet. Scantrons were numbered, and no
identifying information was obtained. The testing process
took aproximately an hour and fifteen minutes, and scantrons
were scored electronically.

16.  It was predicted that scales on the ACIQ pertaining to
attachment to mother and partner would correlate
with the number of crimes for which one was arrested
and the number of crimes for which one COULD have
been arrested.
 In addition, it was predicted that adverse childhood
events, as measured by the ACE, would be correlated
with the number of crimes for which one could have
been arrested, as well as the number of crimes for
which one could have been arrested.

17. Scale Crimes Arrested Could Arrested
Risk Taking Behaviors .24 .49
ACE .25 .35
CAGE .10 .10
Experienced Partner .34 .34
Abuse
Ambivalent Mother .25 .25
Anger Control .28 .29
Avoidant Mother .24 .28
Avoidant Partner .21 .24
Sexual Arousal .31 .18
Secure Attachment to .17 .20
Mother
General Mistrust .24 .21
*Correlations are between instrument scales and crimes for which one was
arrested and could have been arrested. All correlations over .20 have p< .001.

18.  The results are continuing to be analyzed. They will be
examined in terms of more powerful path analyses than the
correlations offered here. However, these correlations are
informative of the fact that current models of criminality,
although significant, do not capture the complexity of the
factors behind dissidence.

19.  The above results demonstrated that several different
factors need to be taken into account when considering
models of criminality.
 In addition, the results reflect the need to address several
different factors when attempting to rehabilitate criminal
offenders and ultimately reduce recidivism.

20.  It is suggested here that there is some truth to all of
the above theories. Upon further analyses of the data,
it is suggested that different models will differ as a
result of the type of crime and criminal in question,
and that all such models will be complex with several
different factors related to different crimes.

21.  As mentioned previously, this set of data continues to
be analyzed in terms of more sophisticated path
analyses.
 It is the goal of these analyses to examine paths to an
array of criminal acts, such as murder or fraud.