Moral self-assessment after committing a crime: a study on men and women in prison with a control group
Moral self-assessment is vital to one's identity, but how does it change after committing immoral behavior like crime? We compared a sample of N = 382 men and women in prison sentenced for violent and non-violent crimes with a matched control group (N = 382). We measured their self-importance o...
| Authors: | ; ; ; |
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| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
2025
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| In: |
European journal of criminology
Year: 2025, Volume: 00, Pages: 1-22 |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (kostenfrei) Volltext (kostenfrei) |
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| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
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| Summary: | Moral self-assessment is vital to one's identity, but how does it change after committing immoral behavior like crime? We compared a sample of N = 382 men and women in prison sentenced for violent and non-violent crimes with a matched control group (N = 382). We measured their self-importance of moral identity, moral self-concept, and moral self-image. We found prisoners had lower moral self-concept and internalization but higher symbolization and moral self-image than non-prisoners. However, all the effects were small. Moreover, violent prisoners had slightly higher internalization than non-violent prisoners, but they did not differ in other moral self-assessments. Women in prison scored higher in moral self-concept and internalization than men in prison, while men in prison scored higher in symbolization than women in prison. We found no sex differences in moral self-image. In sum, committing a crime slightly impacts one's moral self-perception, and we need more studies to understand the mechanisms behind it. |
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| Item Description: | Literaturverzeichnis: Seite 17-22 |
| ISSN: | 1741-2609 |
| DOI: | 10.1177/14773708251324992 |
