Boys who became offenders. A follow-up study of 2203 boys tested with projective methods

Future offenders have more ratings than controls on variables indicating psychopathology. The characteristics which most consistently and significantly discriminate between preoffenders and controls, and which also turned out to be the best predictors of future criminality, are those which previously have been observed in subjects with serious mental disorders. The results indicate that the high degree of psychopathology in subsequent offenders is associated with distortion of body image and with poor reality orientation, i.e. that the most prominent characteristics of future offenders are related to a weakness of the ego. Future offenders seem to have a sufficiently developed ego to handle common tasks. However, their ego fails when they are confronted with unfamiliar and frustrating situations. The inability of subsequent offenders to complete a task properly, with failure on difficult and provocative tasks, shows that they have not developed adequate defence mechanisms and that they have a low tolerance for frustration. They are emotionally immature, instable and impulsive. In short, they are dominated by id impulses. There is no indication of gender confusion (homosexuality) in subsequent offenders. However, there are marked differences between the drawings by cases and by controls regarding characteristics related to sexuality. These findings are interpreted as an exaggeration of masculinity and an abnormal preoccupation with sexuality combined with anxiety for the opposite sex. It is possible that severe criminality, contrary to milder forms of lawbreaking, is associated with elevated self-esteem and extroversion. There are indications that ultimate offenders experience human beings (others or themselves) as deviant, monstrous and inhuman, features which indicate that distorted self-concept and distorted self-perception are characteristics of preoffenders. The findings regarding aggression are inconsistent, just as they were in prior projects. The Draw-A-Person Test (DAP) and Colour Slide Test (CST) findings indicate that preoffenders are more aggressive and destructive than controls, whereas the Hand Test (HT) shows neither more aggression nor more acting-out tendencies in future offenders than in controls. The literature offers conflicting findings regarding depression. The CST results indicate that depression is more common in preoffenders than in controls.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)