Alexithymia and its relationship to the self-concept among prisoners of violent and fnancial crimes

Abstract

The current study aimed to determine the extent of the interaction between the alexithymia and the type of crime on the self-concept, and extent of alexithymia prevalence among prisoners according to the cut-off score in the scales used in this study, and the relationship between alexithymia and selfconcept. Moreover, the Scales were applied to a sample of detainees from the central prison in Kuwait who committed violent and fnancial crimes. The study used a sample of (N= 329(, with an age average of (34.65( and SD (8.41( and applied both the Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS- 20( and the Tennessee Self-Concept Scale- short version. The study results showed that incidence of alexithymia had lower levels of self-concept compared to non-incidence and potential incidence of alexithymia, in addition to the presence of a high level of alexithymia and a low self-concept in favour for the perpetrators of violent crimes compared to the perpetrators of fnancial crimes. The study showed no signifcant differences for the interaction of alexithymia and the type of crime on the self-concept. Also, the incidence of alexithymia in the total sample reached (51.1%(, while the potential incidence reached (32.5%(, and the percentage of non-incidence was the lowest at (16.4%(. Furthermore, the results revealed that alexithymia and its dimensions were negatively related to the self-concept and its dimensions and the total score for both. Finally, the study concluded that alexithymia and low self-concept were associated with violent criminal behaviour compared with less violent crimes and non-criminals.