International Journal of Scientific & Engineering Research Volume 2, Issue 9, September-2011 1

ISSN 2229-5518

Comparison of women’s self -esteem, self- concept and locus of control between the sexual and none-sexual delinquent women in Prisons of Guilan province

Dr. Shohreh Ghorbanshiroudi, Dr. Javad Khalatbari, Leila Jamshidi, Fatemeh Ezattalab Moghaddam

, Mohammad Mojtaba Keikhayfarzaneh

Abstract—A review in the multiplicity of crimes in our country shows that the criminal behavior is one of the big present problems in societies and crime is as a permanent event in societies. So the purpose of this research is to compare women’s self- esteem, self- concept and locus of control between the sexual and nonsexual delinquent women in prison of Guilan province.The present research is a non- probationer research of causal- comparative kind. The sample of research consisted of

40 sexual delinquent female and 40 non-sexual delinquent female selected by random sampling method from Prisons of Guilan Province. The instruments of research were Cooper smith Self-Esteem inventory. To analyze the statistical data, was used of t- test to comparison of two groups and X2test for the nominal data.The research results showed that the most frequency of

sexual guilty women are among 15- 25 ages. The most frequency is among 25-34 ages. 63.75 % of the guilty women have

been married. Most of them have studied elementary and guidance school and academic education had the least frequency with 8 people. 46.3 % of the total tastes of the research have had high self- esteem and 53.8 % of them have had low self- esteem, 23.8 % of the total guilty women have had positive self- concept and 76.3 % of them have had weak and negative self- concept, 46.3 % of the women have had internal locus of control and 53.7% of the women have had external locus of control.The rate of the sexual delinquent women’s self-esteem and of the nonsexual ones is different. The type of the sexual delinquent women’s self-concept and of the nonsexual ones is not different. The type of locus of controlling asexual delinquent and nonsexual ones is not different.

Index Terms— Self esteem- Self- Concept, locus of control, The sexual and asexual guilty women.

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1 INTRODUCTION

review on the multiplicity of crimes in world and in our country shows that the criminal behavior is one
of the big present problems in societies and crime is as a permanent event in societies. The recognition of the crim- inal behavior and the guilty person‘s features are two major purposes according to this and different theories have tried to explain the criminal behavior. The question is whether the commitment of the crime and damage are only monopolized by men. It is to say that women play a considerable part in making the behaviors related ti crime and deviation. Certainly, women‘s body power, their lit- tle power and agility, the process of their glands and the secretion of particular hormones near the puberty age

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 Department of Psychology, Tonekabon Branch, Islamic Azad University, Tonekabon, Iran. E.mail:s.shiroudi@toniau.ac.ir

 Department of Psychology, Tonekabon Branch, Islamic Azad University,

Tonekabon, Iran

 Department of Psychology, Tonekabon Branch, Islamic Azad University, Tonekabon, Iran

 Department of Psychology, Tonekabon Branch, Islamic Azad University,

Tonekabon, Iran

 Department of Psychology, Zahedan Branch, Islamic Azad University, Zahedan, Iran

lead them to the crime like prostitution. In fact, it can be said that the structure abnormality is sexual and related to the sex [1].
Some of the researchers [2] attribute the reason of the
prostitution to poverty and hunger, the quality of a per-
son‘s education and training in the family, the fluctuation
of the economy condition, immigration and city- orienta- tion, illiteracy and lack of knowledge, the addiction to
narcotics, divorce and family conflict and the parents‘ deviation. To psychologists point of view the reason of the prostitution is not limited to the social events but mental events are the reasons of the prostitution. Delavar et al (2004) have concluded that some events like variety seeking, nervous disorders, personality disorders and personality features are effective reasons of social devia- tions like prostitution [3]. Badrieyeva (2003), a Russian researcher, after doing a research on 110 prostituts in ka- zan of Russia has pointed to economical problemsand he has also discussed 90% of the prostitutes are jobless[4]. Valnor (2001 in a research about 424 prostitutes of Barnol city (Russia) has notified that financial problems, addic- tion and the parental rigor are the most important prob- lems that prostates confront with them[5]. In a research by Kamrani Fakoor et. Al. (2003) it is showed that prosti- tute women obtain low marks compared with normal

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people in psychic features like self- esteem.
Asadollahi and Valizadeh (2007) have also concluded in
their study that sexual guilty women have less self- es- teem compared with nonsexual guilty women. This re-
search tries to find an answer to this question if a person‘s low self- esteem, locus of control and self-concept can be related to their tendency to sexual crimes. Because of this, the major variables of the research have been studied among the sexual and nonsexual guilty in Guilan‘s pris- ons[6].
The amount of self- content or the worth that one main-
tains for oneself are so important in a person‘s internal
dynamism and behavior. Most experts know having self- esteam as a central and major factor in a person‘s social and emotional compatibility. According to Mazlo statisfy- ing the need of self- esteem will lead to feelings such as self- esteem, value, capability and efficiency and not pay- ing attention to it will lead to feelings like contempt, weakness and helplessness [7].
In a research, it became clear that people who had low
self- esteem experienced more social problems in coping with others than people who had high self- esteem (seyed
Mohammadi, 1386 quotes sholtez, 2004)8. Asadollahi and Valizadeh (2007) compared the rate self-esteem in sexual guilty women with the rate of nonsexual ones for per- forming this research, 70 sexual & nonsexual guilty pris- oners who were imprisoned according to their crimes in Khuzestan women‘s prison for winter, 2006 and spring,
2006 participated [6]. The research results showed that the sexual guilty women had lower self- esteem than the non- sexual women.
Self- concept in one of the main concepts of Rodger‘s theory and it includes a set of features which a person as a unique human perceives. Self- concept is obtained through social relations [8]. Dunlop studied the relation between Self- concept, the structure of family and child – parent relation among teenagers in aperiod of two years and found out the father who divorced his wife had a weak relation with his child, neglected his keeping and caused weak Self- concept in his child.
Kadivar and Kavousian (2005) studied the effect of family
factors (mother‘s job, family disputes, divorce, parent‘s
education, the number of the children) on children‘s Self- concept[9]. Their findings show that parent‘s disputes, divorce, mother‘s job, sex and father education have a significant correlation with children‘s family Self- concept and the most factor is related to parent‘s disputes and parent‘s educations. This result shows that family dis- putes affect on Self-concept. Rotter explains that locus of control which points to people‘s beliefs in the facts of con- trolling about how to control environment, is a system of beliefs which a person evaluates their success and failure according to it.
Locus of control of mainly defined as a fact that people
believe the control of events in their life is external or in-
ternal. Internal people believe in their ability in control-
ling events. External ones believe that other events or
people affect their life and control them [10]. Asadollahi and Valizadeh (2007) Studied locus of control in sexual and nonsexual guilty women in addition to self- esteem in their research[6].
The research results showed that there is no significant difference between locus of control in sexual guilty wom- en and the nonsexual ones. The prostitute women‘s activi- ty has a criminal aspect and display in our society that it confronts the society anxious and growing insecure be- cause the women who connect with their customers in front of passengers reinforce the feeling of insecurity in the society. According to researchers , inattention to this fact can have destroying effects because condescension with women ‗s criminal behaviors causes gradually tee- nager‘s and young‘s mind to get used to it and fade the
abnormal aspect of the prostitute woman ‗s behaviors and
draws more woman to this arena in long term.
Nasiri (2002) explains in a research that 18% of men‘s
sexual crimes and 58 % of women‗s sexual crimes happen at the ages less than 19.. Also, 53% of household women and 35 % of students commit sexual deviationism [11]. Women have a sensitive and important role and avoiding this role can cause far – reaching damages to human so- cieties. In spite of the existence of inter twined reasons, tendencies to some crimes mostly sexual deviations are: economic poverty, family members‘ addiction lack of rule of law, dissatisfaction of matrimony relation etc. The main purpose of this research is to compare self – esteem, locus of control and self – concept in sexual guilty women and nonsexual ones in order to present more effective therapeutic guidelines by knowing sexual guilty women‘s mental features. Considering the probable role of self – esteem , self – concept locus of control variables in emer- gence of any crime including the sexual crime and consi- dering this fact that locus of control , self – esteem and self – concept are determinant of a person‘s attitude to the world around herself and this attitude outshines person‘s life practices , the purpose of such research is to study how these categories relate to each other and how they relate to sexual crimes , in order to discover this relations and as a result we can present more effective and suitable strategies to prevent sexual crimes .
This research tends to fest following hypotheses: 1- The
rate of sexual guilty women‗s self – steam and nonsexual
guilty ones women‘s is different. 2- Sexual guilty wom-
en‘s self - concept and nonsexual ones is different. 3 – The
type of sexual guilty women‘s locus of control is different
from nonsexual ones.

2 METHODS

This research is non – survey of casual – comparative kind. In this research, a group of sexual guilty women have been compared with a group of nonsexual guilty woman in order to be obtained information about va- riables interference of self –esteem, locus of control and self – concept without any controlling or manipulation in

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appearing criminal behavior.
The people of the research society were criminal women
who spend their imprisonment periods in Guilan prisons during the research performance (spring and summer,
2008). The total numbers of guilty women were 100. Guilty women were divided into two general groups. One group consists of the guilty women who committed sexual crime and the number of them were 46 and anoth- er group consists of women who committed the crimes such as murder, rubbery the corruption of narcotics trad- ing and assault and battery and the number of them were
54 – So two groups participated in the research and a sample group consists of all the guilty women who were imprisoned because of crimes other than sexual crime.
For determining the sample size of research, kerjesi‘s and Morgan‘s table of sample size was referred. Because the number of the societies people were 100, 80 people were chosen as samples in the research [12].
With due regard to, this research is causal – comparative
so the sample consisting of 80 people was divided to two
groups of 40 people, 40 people from the sexual guilty women who were 46 were put in the sample group and
40 people from the nonsexual guilty women who were 54 were put in the comparison group.
It included copper simth‘s self – esteem scale ( 1967 ) , I –
E Rottre‘s internal , eternal locus of control scale ( 1966 ) ,
Rodger‘s self – concept scale For analyzing data. SPSS software , for studing the test of hypotheses the indepen- dent t statistic way for analyzing spatial data and com- paring two groups , and for analyzing nominal data X2test were used[13],[14].

3 FINDINGS

The research results showed that the most frequency of the sexual guilty women was among 15-24 ages. The most frequency was among 25-34 ages in the group of the sex- ual guilty women .On the base of the Findings, 63. 75 % of all the guilty women have been married (47. 5 % of the sexual guilty women, 80 % of the nonsexual guilty wom- en). In the study of sample‘s education, the results showed that most of them have studied elementary and guidance school (52 .5 % in both groups). Academic edu- cation had the least frequency with 8 persons (table 1) .
The sources also showed that 46.3 % of all the research
tastes had high self – esteem and 53.8 % of them had low
self – esteem. self – concept of %23.8 of all the guilty
women is natural and positive and 76.3 % of them also had weak and negative self – concept . It became clear
that 46.3 % of women had internal locus of control. Though 53.7 % of them had external locus of control (Ta- ble 2).

TABLE 1

PERCENT DISTRIBUTION AND THE FREQUENCY OF STUDIED

PEOPLE IN TERMS OF DEMOGRAPHICAL VARIABLES AND THE KIND OF THE CRIME

TABLE 2

FREQUENCY AND PERCENT DISTRIBUTION OF PEOPLE IN TERMS

OF SELF – ESTEEM, SELF – CONCEPT AND LOCUS OF CONTROL

VARIANTS

The Frequency, percent , mean and standard deviation of self – esteem , self – concept and locus of control in two groups of the sexual guilty women and the nonsexual guilty women are reported in tables 3 , 4 and 5.

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TABLE 3

FREQUENCY AND PERCENT DISTRIBUTION OF PEOPLE IN TWO

GROUPS OF SEXUAL GUILTY WOMEN AND NONSEXUAL GUILTY WOMEN IN TERMS OF SELF- ESTEEM VARIANT

The results of the t- test for comparing self- steam in two groups of sexual guilty women and nonsexual guilty women (table 3) showed that considering significant dif- ference means of two groups with 95% certainty that the rate of self-esteem the sexual guilty women and nonsex- ual guilty was women different.

TABLE 4

FREQUENCY AND PERCENT DISTRIBUTION OF PEOPLE IN 2

GROUPS OF SEXUAL GUILTY WOMEN AND NONSEXUAL GUILTY WOMEN IN TERMS OF SELF- CONCEPT VARIABLE

The result of X2test for determining the difference be- tween kind of self- concept in two groups of sexual guilty women and nonsexual guilty women (table 4) showed that considering not significant of X2 proportion, it is ex- plained with 95% certainty that the kind of self-esteem the sexual guilty women and nonsexual guilty women are not different.

TABLE 5

FREQUENCY AND PERCENT DISTRIBUTION OF PEOPLE IN TWO

GROUPS OF SEXUAL GUILTY WOMEN AND NONSEXUAL GUILTY WOMEN IN TERMS OF LOCUS OF CONTROL VARIABLE

The result of X2 test for appointing the difference be- tween the kind of locus of control in two groups of the sexual guilty women and nonsexual guilty women (table
5) showed that considering not significant of X2 propor- tion, it can say with 95% certainty that the kind of locus of control of the sexual guilty women and nonsexual guilty
women is not different.

4 CONCLUSION/DISCUSSION

The research results showed that the sexual guilty women had lower self- steam meaningfully than the non- sexual guilty women. Which are the same as Asadollahi‘s and Valizadeh‘s findings (2007) and Kamrani‘s et al.(2003)[6]. Potterate (1985) has pointed to two concepts
―Sensitivity‖ (talent, readiness) and ―being exposed to
danger‖ in his research in order to find a reason for pros- titution[15]. He suggests that the feeling of value lessens and self- esteem are predisposing psychological factors for person‘s tendency to prostitution.
Kaplan (1975) explains that people who have low self- esteem and experience permanent failure know criminal behavior as a way to increase their self- esteem[16].
According to Kaplan‘s studies [17] a crime or deviant behavior first is associated to low self- esteem. Then, de- viant behavior can change a person‘s self- esteem to suit- able and high self-esteem under particular conditions. In other word the people having a damage ego tend to ob- tain high and positive self- esteem which they obtain through deviant behaviors. They feel inferiority and have low self- esteem because of family disorders, parent‘s loss, parent‘s addiction, parent‘s abuse and cold emotion- al relation with parents in the family because of education failure, leaving school, lack of culture in education, lack of skill in social relations, being exposed to sexual abuse (by family members with others) and also negative atti- tude and feedback of society ti them in social fields.
To explain why there is no difference between the kind of self-concept of the sexual guilty women and of the nonsexual ones, it can say that self –concept can be de- fined as one self image and it includes a set of features which a person as a unique human perceives. Self – con- cept is acquired through social, family and educational relations. Since Sexual and nonsexual guilty women have similar situations in social, family and educational rela- tions, so it can say that there is no difference in their self – concept kinds. Another explanation is that Rodger be- lieves that a person evaluates herself/himself based on what others imagine not based on what he/she feels be- cause a concept of oneself increases extensively based on others evaluation because of persons interactions with her/his associates .According to Rodgers, a person pays more attention to others evaluations because of the need to positive attention. This powerful need in a person causes that she notice to others evaluations other than her evaluation. In judgments about her values [8].
The research results indicated lack of difference be-
tween locus of control of the sexual guilty women and the nonsexual ones which is similar to Asadollahi‘s and

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Valizadeh‘s(2007) research findings that they obtained the
same result with comparing these two groups[6].
The obtained results is limited to Giulan province so it is suggested to study this research in a more extensive sam- ple of guilty women, in a more extensive area of the coun- try and in separate criminal groups considering the kind of crime. Also, a group discussion for criminal in prison and inter personal discussion causes a kind of self- con- cept, self evaluation and emotions, belief and value ex- planation.

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