Relationship between emotion regulation and aggression mediated by criminal thinking in women convicted of violent offenses

Abstract

The pathways to violence in women—especially in non-Western contexts—remain underexplored. This study examines the relationship between emotion regulation difficulties, criminal thinking, and aggression among 114 incarcerated Turkish women convicted of violent offenses (i.e., assault, murder/manslaughter, bodily harm, etc.). The mean age of the sample is 35.67 (SD = 9.66). Half of the sample (50 %, N = 58) has a maximum educational level of primary school qualification, and 30 % are unemployed. Drawing on the General Aggression Model and criminal thinking framework, the participants were administered the Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale (DERS), the Buss–Perry Aggression Questionnaire (BPAQ), and the Criminal Thinking Scale (CTS). Results revealed significant positive associations between emotion regulation difficulties and all subtypes of aggression, yielding correlation coefficients ranging from 0.25 to 0.62. Furthermore, while offenders scored lower than university students on emotion dysregulation and aggression, they scored higher compared to age-matched community samples—highlighting the importance of contextual comparison. Mediation analysis demonstrated that criminal thinking partially mediated the relationship between emotion regulation difficulties and aggression, suggesting that cognitive distortions amplify the effect of affective dysregulation on violent behaviour. These findings underscore the interplay between affective dysregulation and cognitive distortions in female violence and suggest that gender-responsive, trauma-informed interventions must integrate cognitive restructuring alongside emotional regulation skills to effectively reduce female violent offending. The current study advances our understanding of female violence by integrating emotional, cognitive, and sociocultural perspectives within a non-Western context.