Predicting Institutional Adjustment With the Psychological Inventory of Criminal Thinking Styles Composite Scales: Replication and Extension

• NCJ Number: 217452
• Journal: Legal and Criminological Psychology Volume: 12 Issue: 1 Dated: February 2007 Pages: 69-81
• Author(s): Glenn D. Walters
• Date Published: February 2007
• Length: 13 pages
• Publication Format: Article
• Publication Type: Test/Measurement; Report (Study/Research)
• Language: English
• Country: United Kingdom

Annotation

This study determined whether the Proactive (P) and Reactive (R) composite scales of the Psychological Inventory of Criminal Thinking Styles (PICTS) were capable of predicting institutional adjustment in a sample of medium-security U.S. Federal prisoners (n=219).

Abstract

The findings provide additional support for the PICTS R scale as a correlate of future disciplinary adjustment for inmates and confirms the results of the previous Walters (2005a) investigation. The R scale continued to predict total, nonaggressive, and aggressive incident reports (IRs) even after controlling for demographic variables, such as age and marital status, and prior record of IRs. Continued program participation and time spent previously in the institution where the study was conducted had no significant effect on the relationship between the R scale and subsequent disciplinary outcome. The R scale achieved significance whether disciplinary adjustment was measured as a dichotomy (aggressive compared with nonaggressive IRs) or as a count (data on each type of IR). The consistency of the R disciplinary outcome relationship was shown in the successful prediction of disciplinary outcome in 12 out of 12 tests. Although the P scale failed to predict disciplinary outcome as consistently as the R scale, it achieved significance in 5 of 12 of the tests. The findings suggest that the R scale may be used as one component of a larger assessment battery for the identification of inmates at risk for future disciplinary problems. The PICTS is an 80-item self-report inventory designed to measure criminal thinking. The P scale assesses general criminal thinking of a planned nature directed toward a goal and the anticipation of the future benefits of crime. The R scale assesses general criminal thinking that is impulse driven, emotional, and often in response to the actions of a person or situation. 5 tables and 22 references