Effect of a longer versus shorter test-release interval on recidivism prediction with the psychological inventory of criminal thinking styles (PICTS)

The General Criminal Thinking (GCT) score of the Psychological Inventory of Criminal Thinking Styles (PICTS) was correlated with recidivism data obtained on 284 released male federal prisoners. The sample was divided into those inmates who had been released within 24 months of having completed the PICTS (shorter test-release interval; n = 138) and those inmates who had been released more than 24 months after having completed the PICTS (longer test-release interval; n = 146), and recidivism was measured by subsequent arrests and convictions accrued during a 6- to 78-month follow-up. Although the GCT score successfully predicted release outcome in the shorter test-release interval group, it failed to predict release outcome in the longer test-release interval group. The theoretical and practical implications of these findings are discussed.     

Measuring criminal thinking styles: The construct validity and utility of the PICTS in a Dutch prison sample

Purpose. Criminal thinking and thinking styles are important areas in the assessment and treatment of offenders. The Psychological Inventory of Criminal Thinking Styles (PICTS: Walters, 2005) is designed to assess such criminal thinking styles. In the current study, the associations between criminal thinking styles on the one hand, and criminal histories, personality traits, and mental disorders of Dutch prisoners on the other, were explored. The aim is to test the reliability and construct validity of the PICTS in a population of male Dutch detainees. Methods. A sample of 191 randomly selected male prisoners of a large Dutch correctional institution were assessed by means of the PICTS, NEO‐PI‐R, and the MINI psychiatric interview. Prison inmates with very severe psychiatric symptoms and severe disruptive behaviours were excluded. Results. The psychometric qualities of the PICTS were found to be fair‐to‐good. The construct validity of the PICTS was supported by various convergent results with the criminal antecedents of the offenders, as well as with the scores on the scales measuring personality traits and psychiatric disorders. Conclusions. The associations between criminal thinking styles on the one hand and personality traits, antisocial personality disorder, and mental disorders on the other were rather strong. The current results suggest that the PICTS may be a valid and useful tool for assessing criminal thinking styles.     

Measuring proactive and reactive criminal thinking with the PICTS: correlations with outcome expectancies and hostile attribution biases

Research studies have determined that proactive or instrumental aggression correlates with positive outcome expectancies for violence, whereas reactive aggression correlates with hostile attribution biases. It was hypothesized that the Problem Avoidance factor scale of the Psychological Inventory of Criminal Thinking Styles (PICTS) would serve as an effective proxy for reactive criminal thinking and that the PICTS Self-Assertion/Deception factor scale would serve as an effective proxy for proactive criminal thinking. These two factor scales were subsequently correlated with positive outcome expectancies for crime (n=313) and a three-item index of hostile attribution bias (n=164) in a sample of male medium security prison inmates. As expected, the Problem Avoidance scale successfully predicted future hostile attribution biases but not positive outcome expectancies for crime, whereas the Self-Assertion/Deception scale successfully predicted future positive outcome expectancies for crime but not hostile attribution biases.     

The Psychological Inventory of Criminal Thinking Styles and Psychopathy Checklist: Screening Version as Incrementally Valid Predictors of Recidivism

A follow-up of 107 male federal prison inmates previously tested with the Psychological Inventory of Criminal Thinking Styles (PICTS) and Psychopathy Checklist: Screening Version (PCL:SV) was conducted to test the incremental validity of both measures. The PICTS General Criminal Thinking (GCT) score was found to predict general recidivism and serious recidivism when age, prior charges, and the PCL:SV were controlled. The PCL:SV, on the other hand, failed to predict general and serious recidivism when age, prior charges, and the PICTS were controlled. These findings support the hypothesis that content-relevant self-report measures like the PICTS are capable of predicting crime-relevant outcomes above and beyond the contributions of basic demographic variables like age, criminal history, and such popular non-self-report rating procedures as the PCL:SV.     

The Psychological Inventory of Criminal Thinking Styles and Level of Service Inventory-Revised: Screening Version as Predictors of Official and Self-reported Disciplinary Infractions

A total of 159 male inmates screened with the Psychological Inventory of Criminal Thinking Styles (PICTS) and Level of Service Inventory-Revised: Screening Version (LSI-R:SV) were followed for a period of 24 months for evidence of disciplinary infractions (incident reports). Eighty-three of these inmates also furnished a self-report of disciplinary infractions occurring during the 24-month follow-up. The PICTS General Criminal Thinking (GCT) score and LSI-R:SV total score correlated with and accurately identified the presence of an officially recorded disciplinary infraction, an officially recorded severe disciplinary infraction, and a self-reported disciplinary infraction but only age and the GCT score achieved incremental validity when age, GCT, and LSI-R:SV were included as predictors in the same probit regression or loglinear survival equation.     

Incremental Validity of the Psychological Inventory of Criminal Thinking Styles and Psychopathy Checklist: Screening Version in Predicting Disciplinary Outcome

A group of 136 male inmates housed in a medium security federal correctional institution were followed for a period of 24 months for evidence of disciplinary infractions (incident reports) after completing the Psychological Inventory of Criminal Thinking Styles (PICTS) and being scored on the Psychopathy Checklist: Screening Version (PCL:SV). Age, prior incident reports, the PICTS General Criminal Thinking (GCT) score, and the PCL:SV total score were included in a series of negative binomial regressions and Receiver Operating Characteristic (ROC) analyses of three increasingly more serious outcomes: total incident reports, major incident reports, and aggressive incident reports. Results indicated that the PICTS GCT score and PCL:SV total score were incrementally valid predictors of all three outcomes, with the strongest effects occurring when more severe incident reports were predicted. On the other hand, only the PICTS GCT score and Proactive Criminal Thinking (P) scale produced more than one significant ROC finding.     

Testing the construct validity of the PICTS proactive and reactive scores against six putative measures of proactive and reactive criminal thinking

This study tested the construct validity of the Psychological Inventory of Criminal Thinking Styles (PICTS) Proactive (P) and Reactive (R) scores. The layperson version of the PICTS was administered to 277 (65 male, 212 female) undergraduates and correlated with putative measures of proactive and reactive criminal thinking. The hypothesis that P and the proactive scales would correlate ≥.30 in zero-order correlations and regression equations controlling for R, whereas R and the reactive scales would correlate ≥.30 in zero-order correlations and regression equations controlling for P found support in this study. This corroborates the construct validity of the PICTS P and R scores and indicates that self-report measures of moral disengagement and neutralization, on the one hand, and impulsivity and risk taking, on the other hand, may serve as effective proxies for proactive and reactive criminal thinking, respectively.     

Predicting Recidivism with the Psychological Inventory of Criminal Thinking Styles and Level of Service Inventory-Revised: Screening Version

Recidivism was evaluated in 178 male inmates administered the Psychological Inventory of Criminal Thinking Styles (PICTS) and scored on the Level of Service Inventory-Revised: Screening Version (LSI-R:SV) 1–55 months before their release from prison. Age, prior charges, the LSI-R:SV total score, and the PICTS General Criminal Thinking (GCT), Proactive Criminal Thinking (P), and Reactive Criminal Thinking (R) scores served as predictors of recidivism in follow-ups spanning 1–53 months. Age, prior charges, and the PICTS GCT and R scales consistently and incrementally predicted general recidivism (all charges), whereas prior charges and the PICTS R scale consistently and incrementally predicted serious recidivism (more serious charges). Although these results support the predictive efficacy and incremental validity of content-relevant self-report measures of criminality like the PICTS, they also indicate that the effect is modest and in need of further clarification. One area requiring further investigation is the potential role of the PICTS, particularly the R scale, as a dynamic risk factor.     

Use of the psychological inventory of criminal thinking styles to predict disciplinary adjustment in male inmate program participants

The Psychological Inventory of Criminal Thinking Styles (PICTS) was administered to program participants in two different federal prisons-a medium-security federal correctional institution and a maximum-security penitentiary-who were subsequently followed for a period of 24 months for evidence of disciplinary adjustment problems. Disciplinary outcome was measured by the total number of incident reports, the number of nonaggressive incident reports, and the number of aggressive incident reports received during the 24-month follow-up. Negative binomial regression was used to test the relationship between the eight PICTS thinking style scales and three disciplinary outcome measures because the total and nonaggressive disciplinary report distributions showed signs of overdispersion. The only PICTS thinking style scale to achieve statistical significance in this study was the Cutoff scale that successfully predicted total, nonaggressive, and aggressive incident reports in both samples.     

Prevalence of Criminal Thinking among State Prison Inmates with Serious Mental Illness

To examine the prevalence of criminal thinking in mentally disordered offenders, incarcerated male (n = 265) and female (n = 149) offenders completed measures of psychiatric functioning and criminal thinking. Results indicated 92% of the participants were diagnosed with a serious mental illness, and mentally disordered offenders produced criminal thinking scores on the Psychological Inventory of Criminal Thinking Styles (PICTS) and Criminal Sentiments Scale-Modified (CSS-M) similar to that of non-mentally ill offenders. Collectively, results indicated the clinical presentation of mentally disordered offenders is similar to that of psychiatric patients and criminals. Implications are discussed with specific focus on the need for mental health professionals to treat co-occurring issues of mental illness and criminality in correctional mental health treatment programs.     

Evaluation of the cognitive intervention programme ‘A New Direction’ targeting young offenders in Sweden

The treatment of offenders has changed from focusing on risk management to also emphasizing salutogenic experiences as a protective factor. The programme ‘A New Direction’ involves cognitive intervention combining the above-mentioned approaches to treat young criminals and young persons at risk of developing a criminal lifestyle. In evaluating this programme, 61 participants from the Swedish social services and youth care facilities were divided into two treatment groups and two control groups. All participants were subjected to pre- and post-measurements using two questionnaires: the Psychological Inventory of Criminal Thinking Styles (PICTS) and the Sense of Coherence (SOC-13). The two treatment groups followed the programme during one week and 9–30 weeks, respectively, with the control groups measured at approximately the corresponding time intervals. The results show reduced PICTS from high to low levels and increased SOC only for the multi-week treatment group. Although the recidivism analysis revealed a greater reduction of convicted offences in the multi-week treatment group compared with the control group, the finding is tentative because of small sample sizes. To conclude, cognitive intervention shows promise for reducing criminal thinking patterns and increasing sense of coherence, which may have beneficial effects on the behaviour of young offenders.     

Psychological profile of male and female animal abusers

This study had three purposes: to explore psychological characteristics of animal abusers (criminal thinking styles, empathy, and personality traits), to replicate previously reported results (past illegal actions, bullying behavior), and to examine potential gender differences. The self-reported animal abuser group was 29 college students who reported two or more incidents of animal abuse; controls were 29 college students matched on age and gender. Participants completed self-report measures of criminal thinking, illegal behaviors, bullying, empathy, and the five-factor personality traits. Results indicated animal abusers had more previous criminal behaviors, were more likely to bully, and had the highest scores on the power orientation criminal thinking scale. Abuser by gender interactions were detected; female animal abusers scored significantly higher on several measures of criminal thinking, were found to be more likely to bully, and exhibited lower scores on measures of perspective taking and empathy compared to female controls.     

Toward the development of punishment equivalencies: Male and female inmates rate the severity of alternative sanctions compared to prison

According to a survey of 415 male and female inmates serving brief prison terms for nonviolent offenses, inmates perceive several alternative sanctions as significantly more punitive than imprisonment. Women rate alternatives as less punitive than do men, and are more amenable to participating in them. We find that prison and probation do not necessarily define the high and low extremes along a continuum of sanction severity, and we show for the first time how female inmates rank the punitiveness of criminal sanctions. Findings bear on the eventual development of meaningful punishment equivalencies and a valid continuum of criminal sanctions while raising doubts about the value of brief prison terms as a specific deterrent to crime. Our results also support consideration of gender differences in punishment and deterrence. We critique the problems associated with research on offenders' perceptions of the severity of sanctions, and discuss implications for deterrence theory and corrections policy.     

Postdicting arrests for proactive and reactive aggression with the PICTS Proactive and Reactive composite scales

The criminal arrest histories of 262 medium-security male inmates were correlated with the Proactive (P) and Reactive (R) composite scales of the Psychological Inventory of Criminal Thinking Styles (PICTS). As predicted, only scores on the P scale correlated significantly with prior arrests for proactive aggression (robbery, burglary) and only scores on the R scale correlated significantly with prior arrests for reactive aggression (assault, domestic violence) when age, education, race, and marital status were controlled in a series of negative binomial regression analyses. The P and R scales also predicted the total number of arrests received by participants in this sample after these same four demographic measures were controlled. The implications of these results for the construct validity of the PICTS composite scales and for matching offenders to interventions are discussed.     

Predicting reconviction using the Psychological Inventory of Criminal Thinking Styles with English prisoners

Purpose. The purpose of this study was to investigate the utility of the Psychological Inventory of Criminal Thinking Styles (PICTS) in predicting reconviction in a sample of male prisoners. Method. The PICTS was administered to 174 incarcerated male offenders at the point of their release from prison. Reconviction data were collected at a 2‐year follow‐up. Results. Of the eight PICTS scales, only superoptimism differed significantly between reconvicted and non‐reconvicted prisoners, even when age and number of previous convictions were controlled for. Reconvicted offenders scored significantly higher on superoptimism, indicating a more criminal attitude. This finding was supported by a sequential logistic regression, where superoptimism contributed significant predictive power to predicting reconviction beyond a model containing age and number of previous convictions. Conclusions. The results are compared with previous research using the PICTS to predict release outcome. The utility of the PICTS as a predictor for release outcome is discussed.     

The use of the Psychological Inventory of Criminal Thinking Styles with English young offenders

Objectives. This study examines the psychometric properties of the Psychological Inventory of Criminal Thinking Styles (PICTS) with a sample of imprisoned English young offenders. Method. The reliability and validity of the PICTS scales were investigated, and changes in scores on the PICTS scales over a 6‐month period were analysed. Results. The findings suggested that from a psychometric perspective the PICTS scales were not performing as well with young offenders as with adult prisoner samples. The indices of reliability and validity were of a moderate level. Test‐retest scores calculated over the 6 months showed little change on the PICTS scores. Conclusion. The use of the PICTS scales with young offenders is discussed with reference to previous research with adult offenders in England and North America.     

Long-term recidivism of mental health court defendants

The first MHC was established in 1997 and now, over 15 years later, there are over 300 mental health courts in the United States. In a relatively short time these courts have become an established criminal justice intervention for persons with a mental illness. However, few studies have looked at the long-term outcomes of MHCs on criminal recidivism. Of the studies evaluating the impact of MHCs on criminal recidivism, most follow defendants after entry into the court during their participation, and only a few have followed defendants after court exit for periods of one or two years. This study follows MHC defendants for a minimum of five years to examine recidivism post-exit with particular attention to MHC completion's effect. Findings show that 53.9% of all MHC defendants were rearrested in the follow-up and averaged 15 months to rearrest. Defendants who completed MHC were significantly less likely to be rearrested (39.6% vs. 74.8%), and went longer before recidivating (17.15 months vs. 12.27 months) than those who did not complete. This study suggests that MHCs can reduce criminal recidivism among offenders with mental illness and that this effect is sustained for several years after defendants are no longer under the court's supervision.     

A SYSTEMS ANALYSIS OF CRIME CONTROL STRATEGIES

Comparisons were made between 92 male prisoners over the age of 50 and 539 younger male prisoners at Utah State Prison, and between groups of first and muhiply incarcerated ot Utah and younger inmates. The older prisoners committed more crimes against persons, fewer property crimes, were older at first arrest, and were less socially deviant, impulsive, and hostile. The first incarcerated older inmates were found to have more often engaged in crimes of violence. were less involved in a criminal way of life, and were the best adjusted of all the groups. The multiply incarcerated older inmates were found to resemble the younger inmates in terms of a criminal way of life and were not different from their younger counterparts in their adjustment.     

Black–white differences in positive outcome expectancies for crime: A study of male federal prison inmates

Purpose

This study was designed to assess whether black inmates hold more positive outcome expectancies for crime than white inmates in an effort to inform the debate on the nature of well documented differences in criminal involvement between blacks and whites.

Methods

Positive outcome expectancies for crime were measured in 393 black male inmates and 154 white male inmates housed in a medium security federal correctional institution using the Outcome Expectancies for Crime (OEC: Walters, 2003b) inventory.

Results

Black inmates reported significantly stronger positive outcome expectancies for crime than white inmates after controlling for preexisting group differences in age, education, marital status, confining offense, response style, general criminal thinking, and negative outcome expectancies for crime. Anticipation of social benefits for crime in the form of love, respect, and security were particularly salient in distinguishing between black and white inmates.

Conclusions

It is speculated that an interaction of motivational (high achievement motivation), structural (blocked economic opportunities), and cultural (peer reinforcement) factors may be responsible for black-white differences in crime with important implications for theory, research, and clinical practice.     

Criminality,thinking patterns and treatment effects – evaluation of the Swedish cognitive intervention programme ‘new challenges’ targeting adult men with a criminal lifestyle

The cognitive intervention programme ‘New Challenges’ targeting adult men with a criminal lifestyle was evaluated in a pilot study. The participants were divided into a cognitive treatment group (n = 32) and a control group (n = 11). In the control group, six participants had no treatment and five participated in 12-step treatment. The participants were measured pre and post using the Psychological Inventory of Criminal Thinking Styles (PICTS), the abridged version of sense of coherence (SOC), Positive and Negative Affect Scale, and Bergström’s quality of programme delivery (QPD). The results of the treatment group showed that criminal thinking patterns dropped significantly from high values to close to normal level. SOC and positive affect increased significantly in the treatment group. Both SOC and positive affect showed positive correlation with QPD. Regarding the possible influence of the 12-step treatment, there was no difference in the control group between participants receiving 12-step treatment and those not receiving treatment. The main conclusion is that the cognitive treatment programme ‘New Challenges’ can contribute to reduced criminal thinking and increased SOC and positive affect, which may prove to be important precursors of reduced criminality.