Individual Trait Theory

The individual trait theory is a theory of criminology that believes that a person may be predisposed to crime because of certain personality traits. The individual trait theory has roots in the theory of atavism offered by Cesare Lombroso which states that criminals are throwbacks to a more primitive state of humanity, both physically and mentally. Both biological factors and environmental factors is what individual trait theory is based on.

An individual’s personality may be determined by a number of factors. Due to this, there may be different ways to look at a person’s personality, the traits the individual have, and how to categorize the individual’s traits as well as the individual themself. The theories of Gordon Allport, Raymond Cattell, Hans Eysenek, and the “Big Five” model are the most common categorization of traits. As one of the pioneers of trait theory, Gordon Allport discovered that more than four-thousand personality traits in the dictionary. To simplify the list, Allport divided these personality traits into three categories: Cardinal, Central and Secondary. Cardinal traits are defined as traits that summarize a person entirely. Central traits are words used to describe a person such as kind, funny, or loud. Secondary are defined as traits that only surface when an individual is placed in a certain situation.

When it comes to the profiling of criminals, cardinal, central, and secondary traits can be a very important tool to use. For example if a serial killer was to be profiled than these traits may be used to describe them. Narcissism is a cardinal trait that a serial killer may have due to the fact that they are usually self-centered. The central traits that they may have include a lack of empathy or t...

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... it. For example the cases of Phillip Williams and Michael Ortaliz: Williams’s girlfriend had broken up with him. He became enraged and wanted revenge. Williams hid behind a car in the parking lot of his ex’s workplace, ambushed her and stabbed her to death. Ortaliz was waiting at home for his wife when she pulled up with another man in the truck. Ortaliz, out of anger shot the other man to death. Williams is guilty of premeditated murder because although he acted out of rage, the fact that he hid and laid in wait for his ex to walk past showed a clear case of premeditation.

Ortaliz committed a crime of passion. Ortaliz didn’t plan to kill his wife’s boyfriend. In fact he didn’t even know his wife was cheating on him. Seeing his wife with another man caused Ortaliz to become angry and heartbroken. In a fit of rage he grabbed his gun and shot his wife’s boyfriend.