Pilot Study Assessing Type A Behavior in Violence-Prone Inmates

• NCJ Number: 105461
• Author(s): B H Schell; J-C Cachon; O Ganjavi; F Porporino
• Date Published: 1986
• Length: 23 pages
• Corporate Author: Canada Solicitor General
• Sale Source: Canada Solicitor General; National Institute of Justice/; NCJRS Photocopy Services
• Publication Type: Research (Applied/Empirical)
• Language: English
• Country: Canada
• Note: Working Paper No. 1986-1

Annotation

The Behavior Activity Profile questionnaire and a taped voice analysis of interviews were used to assess Type-A behavior tendencies in 34 male, Canadian prison inmates convicted of a variety of violent offenses.

Abstract

Typing according to the interview/voice analysis technique failed to discriminate assaultive from nonassaultive inmates. However, multivariate analysis indicates that assaulters were more likely to be Type-A as measured by the questionnaire, to be serving shorter sentences, and to have had a high number of previous convictions. A discriminant function using these three variables was able to differentiate assaulters from nonassaulters with 88-percent accuracy and could provide an instrument for identifying violence-prone inmates. 4 tables and 32 references (Author abstract modified)