NCJ Number
133457
Journal
Journal of Addictions and Offender Counseling Volume: 12 Issue: 1 Dated: (October 1991) Pages: 2-11
Date Published
1991
Length
10 pages
Annotation
The Defining Issues Test (DIT) was given to three groups of adult male inmates in two categories in Texas to compare their levels of moral development and test the hypothesis that perpetrators of personal crimes such as assault or robbery would have lower levels of moral development than property offenders or perpetrators of victimless crimes such as drug possession.
Abstract
Participation was voluntary. The participants were all white males aged 21 or over with no histories of mental illness and minimum IQ's of 75. Participants averaged 29.87 years old. Contrary to the hypothesis, results showed no significant differences in the levels of moral development of the three groups. In addition, the distribution of scores was similar to distributions of other samples of non-offenders. The educational requirement for the use of the instrument and the limiting of the study to only white participants may explain these results. Findings suggested that offender treatment that focuses on the development of insights regarding social responsibility may not be the best use of correctional treatment resources. Instead, treatment that focuses totally on behavior change may be the most effective. Tables and 27 references