“Dangerousness” within a juvenile institution

Experiments were conducted to test three hypotheses within a maximum security juvenile institution: (1) that the Overcontrolled Hostility (OH) scale, the Socialization (So) scale, and the Hand Test may be used to differentiate dangerous from nondangerous inmates; (2) that an instrument can be constructed that will differentiate dangerous from nondangerous youths; and (3) that there is a negative correlation between staff's perception of a youth's degree of dangerousness and their desire to not work with dangerous youths.The So, OH, and Hand Test were administered as was a twenty-five-word adjective checklist (the “TB”) with four response levels so that low scores signified dangerousness. A questionnaire produced a list of subjects with whom staff wanted to work and those with whom they did not want to work.The hypothesis that the So scale, the OH scale, and the Hand Test could discriminate between dangerous and nondangerous “subjects” was not confirmed. The hypothesis that an instrument could be constructed that would differentiate dangerous from nondangerous youths was confirmed. The hypothesis that staff's perception of dangerousness affects their working relationship with youths was solidly confirmed.