NCJ Number
184027
Journal
Assessment Volume: 6 Issue: 3 Dated: September 1999 Pages: 243-258
Date Published
September 1999
Length
16 pages
Annotation
This article reports on the evaluation of 131 incarcerated male psychiatric inpatients by using a multimethod approach that includes demographic, criminal offense, drug use, neuropsychological, Rorschach, psychiatric diagnosis, and psychopathy characteristics.
Abstract
Each criminal offense was ranked from nonviolent to severely violent, and participants were classified as having lifetime histories of either high or low violent behavior. Univariate analyses revealed 12 characteristics that independently discriminated inmates with lifetime histories of high or low violent behavior (married, non-Caucasian race, Axis I psychotic diagnosis, drug other than alcohol or marijuana used most, positive for psychopathy on the Hare Psychopathy Checklist-Revised, scores indicating impairment on the Halstead Impairment Index and Category Test, and five Rorschach measures). Logistic regression revealed that eight of those characteristics (married, non-Caucasian race, Axis I psychotic diagnosis, positive for psychopathy on the Hare Psychopathy Checklist-Revised, scores indicating impairment on the Halstead Impairment Index, and Rorschach Coping Deficit Index, Personal Responses, and Raw Sum Special Scores) significantly contributed to identifying inmates with lifetime histories of highly violent behavior. Data are provided for sensitivity, specificity, positive and negative predictive power, and overall correct classification rate for neuropsychological and Rorschach measures. Because this sample represented only incarcerated male psychiatric inpatients, and not a general prison population, caution as to limits of generalization are discussed. Implication for use of this information in understanding violent behavior are also discussed. 7 tables and 39 references