A Comparative Analysis of the Anxiety in Offenders of the Law Based on Structural Equational Models

Anxiety affects men and women and have a negative impact on their lives. This paper presents two structural equation models (SEM) to evaluate the variables (physiological and cognitive), that most influenced the anxiety in men and women offenders of the law. Was used a representative sample of 60 offenders of the law (30 mens and 30 womens) of the Specialized Attention Center (SAC) “Carlos Lleras Restrepo” in Medellin, Colombia with diagnosis of Antisocial Personality Disorder (APD). The results of Bartlett's and KMO tests, indicated that the factorial analysis is adequate, all the constructs are statistically significant. The goodness-of-fit test indicated that the model fits well with the data. This paper concludes that, of the two constructs considered- physiological and cognition, in the men the construct that most influences the latent variable physiological are the “Palpitations or tachycardia”. The construct that most influences the latent variable cognitive is the “a feeling of instability”. In the women, the construct that most influences the latent variable physiological is the “dizziness or vertigo”. The construct that most influences the latent variable cognitive is “be afraid”.