Political ideology predicts involvement in crime. (1st February 2017)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Wright, John Paul; Beaver, Kevin M.; Morgan, Mark Alden; Connolly, Eric J.
• Is Part Of: Personality and individual differences. Volume 106(2017)
• Page Start: 236
• Page End: 241
• Publication Date: 2017-02-01
• Subjects: Political ideology -- Liberal -- Conservative -- Crime -- Criminal behavior; Personality -- Periodicals; Individuality -- Periodicals; Individuality -- Periodicals; Personality Development -- Periodicals; Personnalité -- Périodiques; Individualité -- Périodiques; 155.205
• DOI: 10.1016/j.paid.2016.10.062
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0191-8869

Abstract

Abstract: Political ideology represents an imperfect yet important indicator of a host of personality traits and cognitive preferences. These preferences, in turn, seemingly propel liberals and conservatives towards divergent life-course experiences. Criminal behavior represents one particular domain of conduct where differences rooted in political ideology may exist. Using a national dataset, we test whether and to what extent political ideology is predictive of self-reported criminal behavior. Our results show that self-identified political ideology is monotonically related to criminal conduct cross-sectionally and prospectively and that liberals self-report more criminal conduct than do conservatives. We discuss potential causal mechanisms relating political ideology to individual conduct. Highlights: Self-reported political ideology is hypothesized to be related to criminal conduct. Data from a large, longitudinal dataset containing self-reported measures of ideology and criminal conduct were analyzed. Liberal political ideology was significantly associated with crime cross-sectionally and longitudinally. Subgroup analyses confirmed the association for whites and for females.