The Relationship Between Aggression and Self-Esteem Among Prison Inmates

Although the concept of self-esteem (SE) has been extensively researched and analyzed as it has evolved in psychology, it has not been widely used among criminologists to predict aggressive behavior. The purpose of this pilot study was to examine the relationship between aggressive behavior and SE among prison inmates, and to examine whether inmates’ SE levels predicted different types of aggression. More specifically, 2 types of aggression were measured: physical active aggression (PAA) and physical passive aggression (PPA). It was found that inmates with lower SE had higher levels of physical passive but not physical active aggression than inmates with higher SE. These findings point to several implications for future research.