Forensic cross sectional study to associate personality attributes with violent behavior of substance abusers

Substance abusers are considered at greater risk of attempting offenses and violence, though the relationship between two attributes remains uncertain due to the socioeconomic and psychological factors. The contributions of socioeconomic factors in developing countries have been emphasized, in addition to individual's inbuilt personality trait. Hence, this cross sectional study aims to identify subgroups of personality traits at risk of violence and criminality by taking into account the dynamic changes produced due to substance use. A total of 400 substance abusers from the PGI Hospital Chandigarh were assessed based on severity of addiction, involvement in violence). Personality traits were assessed by using EPQ(R) Eysenck Personality Questionnaire. Highly violence group were belonging to higher values of Neuroticism (N) and Psychoticism (P) scores with persistence of addiction with substance abuse. The data collected during the present investigation suggested mean values of 5.67 and 5.19 for Neuroticism (N) and Psychoticism (P) respectively. In the present cross sectional study, two personality's traits can be moderately linked to violent behavior of substance abusers with significance level of 0.05. For criminality, our results are novel, as very few studies on criminal behaviors in forensic interest have been conducted. The two personality traits Neuroticism (N) and Psychoticism (P) in combination with substance abuse contribute to violent behavior of the individuals.