一般化犯罪理論認為低自我控制者會有「衝動」、「感覺遲鈍」、「體力充沛」、「尋求刺激」、 目光短淺」以及「語言表達不佳」等多項特徵，犯罪肇因於個體低自我控制之結果。本研究旨在探討不同犯罪受刑人低自我控制特質之差異，樣本取自高雄監獄「暴力犯罪(殺人)」、「財產犯罪(竊盜)」及「葯物濫用」受刑人共計347名。研究結果發現三組樣本之低自我控制特質有顯著差異。區別分析得知「衝動性」、「冒險性」及「易怒」等三項特質，可有效區別42.7%的三組受試者歸類，其中對「暴力犯罪」正確歸類率為57.2%、對「財產犯罪」正確歸類率為30.5%、對「葯物濫用」正確歸類率為40.4%，尤以暴力犯罪組之區辨效力最高。經逐步多元廻歸分析，「冒險性」、「易怒」及「衝動性」等低自我控制特質，能顯著解釋效標12%至32%的變異量。根據上述結果，將針對犯罪類型與低自我控制各項特質之關係及內涵加以討論。

A General Theory of Crime has been presented by Gottfredson and Hirschi(1990). They identify six distinct elements of self-control and suggest that people who lack self-control will tend to be impulsive, insensitive, physical (as oppose to mental), risk-taking, short-sighted, and nonverbal, and they will tend therefore to engage in criminal and analogous acts. The primary purpose of this study was to test the predictability of self-control on different categories of crime. The scale of low self-control includes impulsivity, simple task, risk seeking, physical activity, self centered and temper. Participants were 347 incarcerated adult male offenders. The major findings are as follows: (1) The larceny group had significant lower self-control in impulsivity, risk seeking, and self centeredness. (2) A direct discriminant function analysis was performed using six self-control trait as predictors of membership in different categories of offenders, respectively. Only “impulsivity”, “risk seeking” and “temper” in those six discriminants can classify correctly about 42.7% of sample into three groups, in particular about 57.2% classification rate was achieved by classifying for the homicide group. (3) “impulsivity”, “risk seeking” and “temper” can significantly explain about 12% to 32% of variance among antisocial behaviors. The implications of the findings of this study for the theory of self-control for different categories of crime are discussed.