Angry Inmates Are Violent Inmates: A Poisson Regression Approach to Youthful Offenders

• NCJ Number: 232807
• Journal: Journal of Forensic Psychology Practice Volume: 10 Issue: 5 Dated: October - December 2010 Pages: 419-439
• Author(s): Matt DeLisi, Ph.D.; Jonathan W. Caudill, Ph.D.; Chad R. Trulson, Ph.D.; James W. Marquart, Ph.D.; Michael G. Vaughn, Ph.D.; Kevin M. Beaver, Ph.D.
• Date Published: October 2010
• Length: 21 pages
• Publication Format: Article
• Publication Type: Research (Applied/Empirical)
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

This study explored the predictive validity of anger on four types of inmate aggression/violence, and investigated whether pre-confinement characteristics were predictive of inmate misconduct.

Abstract

The importation model of inmate behavior posits that pre-confinement characteristics and behaviors contribute to inmate misconduct; however most of this research has centered on criminal history and not psychosocial characteristics that might predict misconduct, namely anger. Controlling for 14 confounds, including psychiatric symptoms, age, race, gender, commitment offense type, and 4 measures of prior delinquency, anger significantly predicted sexual misconduct, staff assaults, and aggressive misconduct and approached significance in predicting ward assaults. ROC-AUC analyses indicated that the MASYI-2 angry-irritable scale had significant but modest classification power, with sensitivities ranging from .58 to .66. Suggestions for future research are provided. Tables, figures, and references (Published Abstract)