Sex Offenders, Impulsivity, and Type of Crime: An Archival Study

How does impulsivity affect the type of crime an offender will commit? Research has suggested that impulsivity may play a role in the type of crime an individual will commit. If impulsivity does play a role in type of crime, it may be possible to identify characteristics that would make an individual at risk for committing more violent crimes and therefore, provide an opportunity to intervene before the at risk individual's violent tendencies escalate. This study examined how the type of crime an individual committed, either contact or non-contact, is related to impulsivity in a population of 58 male sex offenders ranging in age from 19 to 70. This study analyzed psychological test data collected by a previous researcher, who used the Conners' Continuous Performance test and the Stroop Color Word test. An independent ttest was used to analyze the results. The results of this analysis showed that there were no significant correlation between impulsivity and the type of crime an offender will commit within this sample. Even though there were no significant correlations between impulsivity and type of crime in this study the research on impulsivity and type of crime is just emerging and future studies may yield different results.