Mohammad Hossein Shahbahrami - Department of Counseling, Roudehen Branch, Islamic Azad University, Roudehen, Iran.
Farideh Dokanehifard - Department of Psychology, Roudehen Branch, Islamic Azad University, Roudehen, Iran.

Introduction: Crime has a history as long as humanity; issues related to offenders and prisoners, in particular, its relation to psychiatric issues and problems, are among the most challenging and active areas of research.  Objectives: This study aimed at comparing personality disorders and criminal thinking styles in male and female prisoners sentenced to violent crimes. Materials and Methods: This was a causal-comparative research. We investigated a sample of 996 prisoners convicted of violent crimes in Alborz Province, Iran, in 2017. The required data were collected using a demographic data questionnaire, Texas Christine Criminal Thinking Style Questionnaire, and Millon Personality Disorder Questionnaire. The obtained data were analyzed using Independent Samples t-test and Multivariate Analysis of Variance (MANCOVA) in SPSS. Results: The collected results revealed that the prevalence of all mental disorders was averagely higher than the cutoff point in prisoners (P<0.0001). The MANCOVA results indicated a significant difference in criminal thinking style between male and female prisoners convicted of violent crimes (P<0.01, F1,200=7.324, E2=0.180). Conclusion: The prevalence of psychiatric disorders among male and female prisoners the violent crime was higher than the average rate of society. Additionally, criminal thinking styles among male and female prisoners committed to violent crimes were above the average rate of society.

Criminals, Prisoners, Personality disorders, Thinking, Crime, Male, Female