Dömd för brott? Sambandet mellan intagnas implicita och explicita attityder till brott och kriminell belastningsgrad

According to statistics two thirds of Swedish criminals relapse into crimes within three years (Brå, 2007). Researchers suggest a relationship between attitudes toward crime and delinquent behaviour (Andrews & Bonta, 2003), but whether these attitudes are implicit or explicit remains unclear. Therefore, the aim of this study was to measure both constructs. Using SC-IAT (Karpinski & Steinman, 2006) and constructs from the Theory of planned behavior (Ajzen, 1985), criminals (N = 51) in three different prisons in southern Sweden were tested. Analysis yielded mixed results. SC-IAT only correlated significantly with traffic crime and the explicit feeling thermometer with previous number of sentences. The results are discussed in terms of cognitive balance theory and criminological theory of impulsivity