Problems of Forensic Sciences 2006 Vol. 68 (LXVIII) 378-393
RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN PSYCHOLOGICAL GENDER AND A STRUCTURE OF AGGRESSIVENESS AND RISK FACTORS OF VIOLENCE IN JUVENILE GIRLS AND BOYS
Józef K. GIEROWSKI1,2, Stoigniew RUMSZEWICZ1
1Faculty of Psychiatry, Collegium Medicum, Jagiellonian University, Krakow
2Institute of Forensic Research, Krakow
Streszczenie
The aim of the presented research was to comparatively analyse groups of juvenile boys and girls in order to ascertain relationships between the intensity and structure of aggressiveness and risk factors of violence in both groups of juveniles, and their psychological gender. The study encompassed 188 juveniles (115 boys and 73 girls) detained in reformatories (young offenders’ homes) in Pszczyna, Racibórz, and Zawiercie. The mean age in the examined groups was 18.4 years for boys and 18.1 years for girls. An applied risk assessment tool for use with adolescents – SAVRY, Aggression Questionnaire by A.H. Buss and M. Perry, and Psychological Gender Inventory (IPP) by A. Kuczyńska was used in the research. Research results indicated that adolescent girls are characterised by a predominance of historical risk factors and a higher general aggressiveness with a supremacy of hostility, verbal aggression, and anger. Physical aggression was on a similar level in girls and boys. It was determined that in psychological mechanisms forming the basis for aggressive behaviours of examined persons, an important role is played by psycho- logical gender, and especially by the level of masculinity. This holds true in relation to almost all dimensions of aggressiveness, modifying both its intensity, and particular forms. The above-mentioned finding concerns girls and boys in a similar way. From the conducted research it transpires that psychological gender plays an important regulating role in mechanisms that are the basis for aggressive behaviours of juveniles. It constitutes an interesting methodological proposal for those cognitive activities that aim to define violence, including psychological processes that form the basis for the violence.
Słowa kluczowe
Juvenile delinquency of girls and boys; Risk factors of violence; Aggressiveness, Psychological gender.