Murder and the control of aggression.

Abstract

Building on the identification by Megargee, et al. ( 1967) of cwo kinds of murderers (overcontrolled and undercontrolled), it was predicted that ( a ) from a psychoanalytic point of view, overcontrolled murderers should be more depressed and suicidal than undercontrolled murderers and ( b ) from Eysenck's theory of crime (1964), overcontrolled murderers should be more introverted than undercontrolled murderers. To test these predictions, 35 male murderers from a state penitentiary were given the Zung (1765) self-rating depression scale, the Maudsley Personality Inventory (Jensen, 1958), and the Megargee, et nl. hostility concrol scale (which he devised to assess the dimension of over versus undercontrol of hostile impulses). Neither prediction was confirmed: control of hostility scores were not related to depression scores (product-moment r = -0.23), extraversion scores (product-moment r = -0.10), or to prior suicidal behavior (point biserial r -0.29). In addition, scores on the hostility concrol scale were not related co age (product-moment r = -0.04), IQ (product-moment r = 0.01), years in jail (product-momenc r = 0.03), neuroticism scores (product-moment r = -0.1 1 ) , Lie scale scores (product-moment 7 = 0.02), race (point biserial r = 0.19), or to prior felony convictions (poinc biserial r = -0.08). When Ss whose Lie scores were less than three (out of a possible score of 20) were considered separately, the resulrs remained essentially unchanged. The results of the present study indicated that overcontrolled murderers did noc differ from the undercontrolled murderers in the predicted manner. Megargee's notion char murderers are extreme in their concrol of hostilicy was noc borne out by these data: the range of scores was unimodal racher than bimodal, [hereby casting doubt upon the basic notion or upon Megargee's operational measure of hostility control.