Are specific criminal offences associated with particular negative interpersonal relating styles?

This chapter presents research which explored whether particular forms of negative relating as measured by the Person’s Relating to Others Questionnaire (PROQ3; Birtchnell et al., Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy, 20(1), 36-48, 2013) were associated with specific forms of offending behaviour (Newberry and Birtchnell, Journal of Criminal Psychology, 1(1), 24-35, 2011). A sample of 923 prisoners serving sentences in a therapeutic community prison for male offenders were categorised on the basis of their offending behaviour and their PROQ3 scores were compared. It was found that neutral distance (ND: suspicious, uncommunicative, and self-reliant relating) and lower closeness (LC: fear of rejection and disapproval) were the scales most significantly associated with criminality in general. Some interesting differences were also found between offence groups: violent offenders and dishonest offenders scored higher on UD (sadistic, intimidating, and tyrannising relating) than homicide offenders and sex offenders