Understanding and explanation of criminal behavior, as well as
prediction of recidivism and the future of law offenders are possible
through a multidisciplinary consideration, demanding exploration of
possible connection between the profile and personality traits of law
offenders with as many other variables as possible. The sample was
convenient and it consists of 142 male prisoners from Penal and
Correctional Facility in Nis. They are between 35 and 50 years old
(average age = 39.7). Within this exploratory study, the main aim of
research is to determine the existence of psychopathological
personality traits of law offenders, to analyze facing and overcoming
stress and dominant time perspectives, and their differences with
working convicts and those that are not a part of a voluntary working
activity during their term of imprisonment. Besides determining the
psychological factors, the task is also checking the connection of
socio-demographic variables with the stress management
mechanisms, the dominant time perspective, and expectations from
the future of the convicts. Through an innovative and interesting
approach, combining multiple psychological fields, I got both
theoretical and practically applicable contributions to science and
psychological profession. Among other things, it can be seen that the
connection between the variables and the possibility of prediction are
the strongest with sub-sample of a prisoners with working
commitment; those without working commitment have higher scores
on the scale of psychopathological digression, and among them those
who have been imprisoned for longer periods of time are more prone
to hostility, paranoia and psychological issues, generally speaking.
Considering the time perspective, among those with working
commitment the most prominent is the attitude towards the future,
and the statistically significant difference between those with working
commitment and those without is on the scale of the fatalistic present
to the benefit of the prisoners without working commitment, and
especially those with longer prison sentences. Within the sample of
the prisoners with working commitment there are many more
significant correlations between time perspectives and stress facing
strategies, and also perspectives with psychopathological indicators
related to the convicts who do not work in prison. The results
definitely show statistically significant connection of working
commitment of the crime committers on one side, and
psychopathological digression (both individually and through global
index GSI), time perspectives and coping mechanisms on the other
side