Intelligence has been found to predict a wide range of criminal and antisocial behaviors, including violent and chronic offending. The results from this literature have shown that individuals with lower intelligence levels (typically measured as IQ) tend to be more likely to engage in criminal behavior. Despite the pervasiveness of this basic finding, many aspects of the IQ-offending relationship remain unclear, such as the functional form of the association. Some perspectives expect a discrete or curvilinear association, while others assume a more incremental or linear pattern.
The current study contributes to this literature by examining the functional form of the IQ-offending association in a total birth cohort of Finnish males born in 1987. Criminal offending was measured with 9 different indicators from official records and intelligence was measured using 3 subscales (verbal, mathematical, and spatial reasoning) as well as a composite measure.
The results show consistent evidence of mostly linear patterns, with some indication of curvilinear associations at the very lowest and the very highest ranges of intellectual ability… the results were remarkably consistent across the multiple measures of criminal offending and intelligence, suggesting that the IQ-offending association may be largely driven by general intelligence (g).
We discuss the implications of these findings for future research.
[Keywords: criminal behavior, functional form, IQ-offending association, birth cohort]
