Sentenced to life: self-assessment of aggression and sense of guilt of condemned to lifelong terms of imprisonment

The review of literature and results of empirical research of the self-assessment of aggressiveness, styles of the interpersonal relations and sense of guilt of those who are sentenced to the lifelong imprisonment, are presented in this article. Two groups of imprisoned were studied depending on the term of the served sentence - less than 10 years of imprisonment and more than 10 years, in comparison with groups of the condemned to the urgent conclusion and law-abiding men. Interview, supervision, psychodiagnostic questionnaires (Buss-Durkee Hostility Inventory, Perceived Guilt Index by John R. Otterbacher & David C. Munz) were used. It was established that those who stayed in prison from 5 to10 years had lower levels of aggression in comparison with the criminals who were in jail for 10 and more years. For an explanation of these distinctions the hypothesеs of «the suppressed aggression» and «the accumulated aggression» are offered. It was shown that the convicts who served the sentence over 10 years, more intensively and more deeply experience the feeling of guilt.