NCJ Number
219827
Journal
Criminal Justice and Behavior Volume: 34 Issue: 8 Dated: August 2007 Pages: 985-1004
Date Published
August 2007
Length
20 pages
Annotation
The study examines the validity of scores on prehire administration of the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI-2) Clinical, Restructured Clinical (RC), and Substance Abuse scales in predicting behavioral misconduct in police officers.
Abstract
Results of the study show that the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI-2) Clinical can be a useful instrument in the prediction of behavioral and attitudinal problems in law enforcement officer candidates. Findings indicate that the K-correction is particularly problematic in this setting, and therefore non-K-corrected Clinical Scale scores should be interpreted. The Restructured Clinical (RC) scales were, by and large, the best predictors of police officer misconduct. Study findings indicate the need for disattenuating correlations because of range restriction when working with highly preselected samples, as well as the need for lowering cutoff scores used to predict potentially problematic conduct among law enforcement candidates. Police officers can, and occasionally do, abuse their authority, violate rules and laws, set a poor example for others, or exploit their position for personal gain. In an attempt to foster and maximize integrity in the police culture, initiatives such as entry-level screening and hiring processes to ascertain reliable predictors of ethical behavior, identifying characteristics of officers and supervisors who have a proven track record of performance with integrity, and studying the correlation between psychological screening data and future violations of public trust to identify reliable predictors have been proposed. This study sought to extend the previous MMPI-2 findings concerning the prediction of future behavioral problems in police officer candidates. The goals of the study were to examine the standard Clinical scales, specifically RC scales which were developed to improve the convergent and discriminate validity of the original Clinical scales. Second, to examine the relative validities for the K-corrected and non-K-corrected Clinical scales. As a final goal, the study examined the impact of range restriction on estimates of the predictive validity of the MMPI-2. The overall sample consisted of 426 fulltime male police officer candidates from a midsized midwestern city police department. Tables, references