Psycho-Socio-Cultural and Personal Attributes of Murderers in Punjab, Pakistan.

PAKISTAN; PUNJAB

Murderers have specific behaviors inclusive of developmental, psychological, and cognitive characteristics. The present research is based on a purposive sample (N = 170) of convicted murderers in district jails of Sargodha, Shahpur, and Jehlum. The thematic analysis of the data obtained through semi-structured interviews depicted that a typical murderer was a young, poor, unskilled, and uneducated man with no history of imprisonment. The major themes in the domain of developmental trajectories included unstable family and poor interpersonal relationships. The major sub-themes in the cognitive factors included lack of empathy, lack of remorse or guilt, and lack of self-control. Antisocial tendencies and impaired psychological health were the major themes extracted in the domain of psychological characteristics. The major causes of committing the murder were revenge/enmity, honor killing (Zan), robbery, sudden provocations, and disputes over the land/property (Zar and Zameen). Murderers' emotional states before and after killing were the function of the motives of killing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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