Moshe Addad

Pathways to Women's Crime: Differences Among Women Convicted of Drug, Violence and Fraud Offenses

ABSTRACT The current study was conducted on 60 Israeli female inmates. Our aim was to examine the differences among women convicted for drug, violence, and fraud offenses by socio-demographic variables and self-control and aggression levels. Results revealed that the drug group was characterized by measures attributed to chronic delinquency, and the fraud group was found to fit the pathway to low crime. At the same time, the violence group was not characterized by any of these patterns. The findings were discussed in relation to their theoretical contribution and applicability.

Neuroticism, extraversion and meaning of life: a comparative study of criminals and non-criminals

Abstract This study attempts to examine possible connections between neuroticism, extraversion and the meaning of life. A population consisting of 446 subjects, 140 incarcerated criminals and 306 non-criminals, was examined. A negative correlation was found between the meaning of life and neuroticism. No connection was found between extraversion and the meaning of life. It was found that only in specific cases can criminal solutions be a substitute for the meaning of life.

Typology of Intimate Partner Homicide Personal, Interpersonal, and Environmental Characteristics of Men Who Murdered Their Female Intimate Partner

Fifteen inmates from Ayalon prison, a maximum-security prison in Israel, who were convicted of murder, attempted murder, or manslaughter of their female intimate partner, have participated in a study designed to examine integrated variables—personal, interpersonal, and environmental—familial—connected with this phenomenon. Analyses of the in-depth interviews demonstrate that despite the different motivations the perpetrators displayed with regard to the murder, they share some common themes. On the basis of these themes, three primary types of female intimate partner murderers have been identified; each of them represents a personal narrative as follows: the betrayed, the abandoned, and the tyrant. The proposed typology might be used for establishing a common language among researchers, scholars, and workers in this field. It can also contribute to the existing clinical tools in terms of prediction, prevention, and treatment initiatives that currently focus on violence.

Moulding an emancipatory discourse: How mothers recovering from addiction build their own discourse

In this study, we investigated how mothers in different stages of recovery from addiction negotiate their identities along this process. We mapped the discursive fields in which those mothers act and the subject-positions available to them. The first discourse in this field was the popular discourse that according to it addicted mothers are compared to ‘monsters’. Another discourse was the institutional discourse that stems from the milieu in which the women were treated. The discourse analysis demonstrated that the participants did not automatically accept the institutional discourse, but rather constructed a new identity based on several different discourses, borrowed from other treatment models demonstrating resilience, creativity and adaption to their unique experience. This reconstruction of identity served as an alternative to the ‘monstrous mother’ identity imposed on them by the popular discourse. The findings support the view that while social forces shape individual identity, individuals also create their own agency through language, relationships and cultural attributes.

Immoral Judgement, Extraversion, Neuroticism, and Criminal Behaviour

The present article examines delinquent behaviour by integrating two approaches which have heretofore been employed separately—Eysencks theory linking delinquency to extraversion and neuroticism and Kohlbergs theory of moral development and its connection to moral behaviour. It analyses the relations between extraversion, neuroticism and moral judgement—as well as their independent and/or interactive effect upon the development of anti-social behaviour. The relationships are tested via retrospective measurements of personality traits and moral judgement in three groups: delinquency (N= 203), control (N= 82) and comparative (N= 407) groups. Findings indicate that criminals are higher than control subjects on neuroticism and immoral judgement but not on extraversion. Similar relationships were found between criminals and the comparative group. The implications of these results for the differential development of anti-social behaviour is discussed.

Recovering Drug-Dependent Mothers’ Perspective on Gender-Sensitive Therapy An Israeli Case

This study examined issues of gender-sensitive therapy, such as relational self, motherhood, and single-gender treatments from the perspective of recovering drug-dependent mothers. Using a social constructionism framework, 25 recovering drug-dependent mothers in different stages of recovery were interviewed and 5 of them were followed for another 2 years. The results challenge the argument presented by advocates of gender-sensitive therapy in the addiction field and underscore the importance of context, especially the therapeutic narrative that elicited an alternative construction of gender, motherhood, and gender-sensitive therapy. The findings suggest possible new directions for addressing therapeutic issues and the need for additional research.

Moral Judgment by Criminals and Conformists as a Tool for Examination of Sociological Predictions

This study illustrates how predictions from sociological approaches might be operationalized using a psychological measure, moral judgment. A prediction based on Mertons anomia theory, that offenses elicit greatest justification when the importance of a socioeconomic goal is high and availability of means to achieve that goal is low, was investigated. The design was a multifactorial manipulation of the goal and availability of means as well as other relevant factors. Results from this experimental procedure were examined on the background of data from Eysencks personality questionnaire. The findings point to interactive effects of the importance of a goal, of availability of means and severity of offenses on justification for those offenses.

Prisoners’ Perception of Informing to the Authorities: An Analysis in Terms of Functional Moral Judgment

A series of functional measurement experiment show that prisoners modulate their moral judgments of violations of their in-group regulations. The participants were 67 women and 80 men, sentenced for at least three years for murder, robbery, drug-traffic or white collar offenses. Each was asked, individually, to imagine a series of incidents where incriminating information on in-group or out-group inmates is delivered to the prison authorities or to an in-group source and to rate the deserved denigration of the informer, who was characterized as a leader or not and as a drug-addict or not who had a prison-leave or not. An assignment of approximately equal weight for social status, drug use and prison leave was found, beyond gender and type of offense. In line with the hypothesis of judgmental modularity, informing to an out-group source was judged much more severely than informing to in-group arbiter and than informing on an out-group inmate.

Stigma, creativity, crime, and madness

The paper deals with the notions of stigma as related to crime and madness. It expounds a new personality theory which Is related to the genesis of both crime and madness and presents madness as an incentive to creativity. The notion of existentialistic authenticity is integrated in the processes of creativity. The case of Van Gogh and Artaud illustrates the bifurcation of authentic and inauthentic existence, in the sense that even madness has been utilized by Van Gogh for creativity. His life thus becomes authentic although his art is fuelled by underlying madness.

Despair Will Hold You Prisoner, Hope Will Set You Free: Hope and Meaning Among Released Prisoners:

The current study examines the self-image and worldviews of 10 released prisoners in Israel through narrative analysis of their life stories, including past and present periods in their lives and future aspirations. The findings reveal a chaotic past perceived as lacking meaning, hope, and clear boundaries while being devoid of choice. Prison is considered a turning point, and attitudes after release change toward choice, life meaning, and a hopeful future. The discussion addresses these themes, and the important variables of hope and life meaning in generating changed goals and rehabilitation.