Criminal offense type and the causes of loneliness

This study is an examination of the influences of incarceration on perceive d causes of loneliness. A heterogeneous prison population was divided into five homogeneous subgroups (sex offenders, violent offenders, property offe nders, drug-related offenders, and a category that contained all other misc ellaneous offenders) whose loneliness experiences were then compared. Three hundred fifty-six incarcerated male offenders and 501 men from the general population were recruited on a voluntary basis. They reported the perceive d sources of their loneliness on an 82-item, yes/no questionnaire. Results indicated significant differences in perceived causes of loneliness between the criminal and general populations and within the criminal sample when t he data were examined according to offense type.