Rasgos de personalidad en la conducta criminal: caracterización y causas desde la teoría del apego

Abstract

Criminal conduct is defined as any conduct where the violation of the rules imposed by society and/or the violation of the rights of others is evident; such conduct ranges from theft, physical or verbal assault, murder, to bullying, harassment, etc. This problem is of interest in the field of mental health, due to the high rate of this type of behavior worldwide and the negative effects it causes both to the individual, who commits crimes, and to society. Therefore, the study aimed to determine the relationship between criminal behavior and types of attachment, through a descriptive bibliographic research; we tried to obtain relevant, truthful and updated information through the review of articles and scientific publications. A conceptual theoretical framework is presented from the point of view of attachment theory, from the perspectives of John Bowlby and Mary Ainsworth, who link their analytical and experimental studies by elaborating a similar description in their theories of criminal behavior. This theory, along with its main exponents, highlights the importance of attachment between the child and his or her caregivers in terms of emotional regulation. Such regulation will depend on the type of attachment, which can be safe, insecure, anxious and avoidant. The results of the research are that the types of anxious attachment and avoidant insecure attachment show a significant and high correlation with psychopathy and antisocial traits.