NCJ Number
234541
Journal
Journal of Criminal Justice Volume: 39 Issue: 2 Dated: March/April 2011 Pages: 192-197
Date Published
April 2011
Length
6 pages
Annotation
This study determined whether Black inmates had more positive expectations from committing crimes compared with White inmates.
Abstract
Study findings support the hypothesis that Black inmates expect more positive benefits for committing crime compared with White inmates in a sample of 393 Black male inmates and 154 White male inmates. This finding persisted even after controlling for age, education, marital status, current offense, response style, general criminal thinking, and negative outcome expectations for crime. Prior incarcerations and the length of current sentence were not measured in this study; they could not be ruled out as alternative explanations for the current results, based on research showing that individuals with more extensive criminal histories or longer prison terms are more pessimistic about their chance of avoiding future criminality. Future research should also examine whether the results can be generalized to offenders who are not incarcerated and to nonoffender populations. The study participants were housed in a medium-security Federal correctional facility in the northeastern region of the United States. The average sentence being served by inmates in the general population was 101 months. Over half of the inmates in this facility were serving time for a drug or firearms offense. All study participants completed the Outcome Expectancies for Crime (Walters, 2003), which is an inventory that lists 16 potential outcomes for crime divided into 12 anticipated positive outcomes (acceptance, approval, control, excitement, freedom, love, power, prestige, purpose, respect, security, and status) and 4 anticipated negative outcomes (death, jail or prison, loss of family, and loss of job). Participants also completed the Psychological Inventory of Criminal Thinking Styles, an 80-item self-report inventory designed to measure the criminal thinking patterns believed to maintain a criminal lifestyle. 3 tables and 46 references