Characteristics and Personality Styles of Women Who Seek Incarcerated Men as Romantic Partners: Survey Results and Directions for Future Research

Abstract

Results are presented from a survey of 89 women who sought and entered into a relationship with a man who was incarcerated. Demographic, clinical, and relationship characteristics revealed a diverse group of women with a moderate degree of childhood/family victimization and family member’s involvement with the legal system. Results from the Jesness Inventory-Revised, a measure of personality functioning, revealed two predominant personality subtypes among the women: the Manipulator/Pragmatist (31%) and the Neurotic, Anxious/Introspective (25%). The results are compared to existing traditional and nontraditional theories of mate selection and thoughts for a systematic program of research in this area are offered.

ACKNOWLEDGMENT

A portion of these results was presented at the annual conference of the American Psychology-Law Society in Jacksonville, Florida in 2008.

Notes

1. ¹Because the on-line JI–R is protected and copyrighted the questions were not able to be inserted into the main part of the survey. Instead, a link and instructions for continuing on to the JI–R website were provided. Unfortunately, it was not possible to link the individual participants’ survey data with her JI–R responses.

2. ²However, when participants were specifically asked about how they would describe their current relationship with an inmate, only 45 out of 87 participants (51.7%) that responded to this question reported being engaged or married. This discrepancy between their reported legal status and their description of the status of their relationship with an inmate suggests that a few of our participants may have been engaged or married to a “free” man, while they pursued a relationship with the inmate.

3. ³In the context of this study, Pen Pal program refers to a privately owned or church sponsored program that was established for the purpose of encouraging communication and establishing a friendship between inmates and those on the outside. Generally, inmates will submit a personal ad, photos, and contact information to the organization and interested persons then view these ads and choose an inmate with whom they wish to correspond.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Marcela Slavikova

MARCELA SLAVIKOVA graduated Summa Cum Laude from a combined BA/MA program in Forensic Psychology at John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York City. She also has a second Master’s degree in Criminal Justice, with a dual specialization in Criminology and Investigative Techniques. She is currently a Lead Investigator and Behavioral Sciences Specialist at Intelex, Ltd. in Stamford, Connecticut. Her interests include due diligence, investigative techniques, and forensic science.

Nancy Ryba Panza

NANCY RYBA PANZA, Ph.D., completed her doctorate in Clinical Psychology with a specialization in Psychology and Law at the University of Alabama. Since that time she has held academic appointments in the Psychology Departments at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, and currently at California State University, Fullerton. Her clinical and research interests include forensic assessment, juvenile justice, and standards of practice in forensic psychology.