Past Issues

Objection: The purpose of this study was to analyze the relationship of individual attribution, self-esteem, anxiety, hostility and depression among sex offenders and violent offenders. Method: In this study, we selected 195 sex offenders from the Taiwan Taichung Prison and 250 violent offenders from the Taiwan Tainan Prison. In addition, we used a random sample of 82 healthy males who lived in the Dalin township as control subjects. The assessment tools used included “Culture Free Self-Esteem Inventory,” “Buss- Durkee Hostility Inventory,” “State-Trait Anxiety Inventory,” and “The Beck Depression Inventory.” Results: Many of the violent offenders and sex offenders were from 20 through 40 years old. Among them, 64.5% were violent offenders and 72.8% sex offenders. The violent offenders had lower self-esteem levels. The sex offenders had higher self-value than the violent offenders. The violent offenders showed high anxiety under stress. The state-anxiety levels of the sex offenders were between the violent offenders and control subjects. The violent offenders had higher trait-anxiety characteristics than the sex offenders and control subjects. The depression levels of the violent offenders and sex offenders were greater than mild depression levels. By exploring the relationships of the 11 variables such as education, violent criminal record, age, assault record, guilt, resentment, depression, state-anxiety, self-esteem and selfemotion scale we could accurately discriminate 71.5% of the violent offenders and sex offenders from the control subjects. Conclusion: Sex offenders and violent offenders are high anxiety and depression levels. By administering therapy, we have helped clients to explore the consequences of affective factors and self-esteem. (Full text in Chinese)