Objective: To explore the basic personality traits of juvenile criminals with respect to crime types, areas of residence, and structures of family. Methods: This study involved administering the “EPQ-C” and a self-designed questionnaire to 379 male juvenile criminals aged from 13 to 15 years. Results: As compared to the normal samples, the juvenile criminals obtained significantly higher scores on the dimensions of E and N, but lower scores on the dimension of L. The juvenile criminals committing different types of crime also differed significantly in their scores on the dimensions of P, L and N. Further, there were significantly different scores on the dimension of P and L between juvenile criminals living in urban and rural areas. Finally, scores on the dimension of N was found to be significantly different in juvenile criminals with single parents. Conclusion: The basic personality traits of the juvenile criminal are: extroversion, restless, hard to self-control, unsteady emotion, weak defensive mechanism, as well as comparatively low mental maturity and credulity. These personality traits are significantly linked with important factors of crime types, areas of residence and integrity of family.
