Personality features of an adolescent female offending population

Abstract

The incidence of adolescent offending has been shown to be different for young males and females. However, there is a lack of literature concerning adolescent female offenders, and despite research suggesting that personality factors may be linked with antisocial and criminal behaviour in adolescents and young adults; there have been a lack of studies investigating intra-sex personality differences in young female populations. The Millon Adolescent Clinical Inventory, a 160-item self-report personality measure, was administered to 26 non-offending and 28 offending adolescent females. It was found that the offending group was significantly less submissive, less conforming, more forceful, more oppositional and more likely to exhibit borderline personality traits than the control group. The offending group also had higher reported incidences of childhood abuse and family conflict, and were more prone to substance abuse, impulsive actions and suicide ideation. These initial findings suggest that personality differences may well exist between offending and non-offending adolescent females.