NCJ Number
228843
Journal
Criminal Justice and Behavior Volume: 36 Issue: 10 Dated: October 2009 Pages: 1025-1036
Date Published
October 2009
Length
12 pages
Annotation
This study assessed the validity of the Psychological Inventory of Criminal Thinking Styles (PICTS) for use with criminal thinking in male sex offenders.
Abstract
Analyses revealed that a measure of criminal thought process correlated significantly with indexes of crime severity (sentence) and risk (Static-99 total score) but not with an index of current offense dichotomized into child molestation versus rape. The PICTS correlates with both sexual and nonsexual criminal risk, can be used with a cross-section of sexual offenders, is capable of assessing both the antisocial and sexual deviance components of sex offending, and is sensitive to the instrumental (scheming, devious, scamming) qualities of criminal thinking in both rapists and child molesters. Results have implications for both treatment planning (different intervention protocols for proactive and reactive criminal thinking) and risk assessment (pairing self-report data from the PICTS with actuarial data from the Static-99). For the purpose of providing useful information to clinicians, the next order of business will be to determine whether the PICTS does an adequate job of predicting future disciplinary adjustment and recidivism in sex offenders. Follow-up studies conducted on general offender samples indicate that the PICTS correlates modestly but consistently with future arrests, convictions, and violations. Data were collected from 543 male sex offenders undergoing sex offender treatment in 1 of 2 prison-based programs offered by a State correctional system in the Midwestern United States. Tables and references