Measuring Criminal Thinking Styles: The Construct Validity and Utility of the PICTS in a Dutch Prison Sample

• NCJ Number: 226390
• Journal: Legal and Criminological Psychology Volume: 14 Issue: 1 Dated: February 2009 Pages: 35-49
• Author(s): Erik Bulten; Henk Nijman; Cees van der Staak
• Date Published: February 2009
• Length: 15 pages
• Publication Format: Article
• Publication Type: Research (Applied/Empirical)
• Language: English
• Country: United Kingdom

Annotation

In this study, the prevalence of criminal thinking styles, as measured by the Psychological Inventory of Criminal Thinking Styles (PICTS), was investigated in a sample of Dutch prisoners residing in regular wards.

Abstract

Results of the study found the psychometric qualities of the Psychological Inventory of Criminal Thinking Styles (PICTS) to be fair-to-good. The construct validity of the PICTS was supported by various convergent results with the criminal antecedents of the offenders, as well as the scores on the scales measuring personality traits and psychiatric disorders. Results suggest that the PICTS may be a valid and useful tool for assessing criminal thinking styles. The PICTS aims to measure thinking styles which are associated to criminal conduct, and tries to assess both the process and the content of criminal thinking. In this study, the associations between criminal thinking styles on the one hand, and criminal histories, personality traits, and mental disorders of Dutch prisoners on the other, were explored. The study consisted of a sample of 191 male prisoners residing at a large Dutch correctional institution. These prisoners were assessed by means of the PICTS. Tables and references