NCJ Number
57191
Journal
Journal of Personality Assessment Volume: 40 Issue: 6 Dated: (1976) Pages: 617-621
Date Published
1976
Length
5 pages
Annotation
TRAIT AND TYPE DIFFERENCES, AS DEFINED BY THE MINNESOTA MULTIPHASIC PERSONALITY INVENTORY (MMPI) SCALE SCORES AND PROFILES, ARE INVESTIGATED AMONG MALE AND FEMALE MISDEMEANOR ASSAULTIVE AND NONASSAULTIVE OFFENDERS.
Abstract
THE 506 OFFENDERS WERE REFERRED TO THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA AT LOS ANGELES LEGAL PSYCHIATRY CLINIC BY VARIOUS MUNICIPAL COURTS AND WERE ADMINISTERED THE MMPI SCALES AFTER CONVICTION BUT BEFORE SENTENCING. AVERAGE MMPI PROFILES WERE CONSTRUCTED ON THE ASSAULTIVE AND NONASSAULTIVE SUBJECTS SEPARATELY FOR MALES AND FEMALES. CODE TYPES WERE SELECTED FROM THE TOTAL SAMPLE AND THE PERCENTAGE OF FREQUENCY OF ASSAULT WAS CALCULATED FOR EACH TYPE. TYPE DIFFERENCES OF ASSAULTIVE VERSUS NONASSAULTIVE OFFENDERS WERE EXAMINED. THE RESULTS FROM TRAIT COMPARISONS OF THE TWO GROUPS IS GENERALLY CONSISTENT WITH THE SMALL DIFFERENCES BETWEEN SUCH GROUPS FOUND BY PREVIOUS RESEARCH: I.E., ONLY THE MA SCALE SHOWED A SIGNIFICANT DIFFERENCE BETWEEN ASSAULTIVE AND NONASSAULTIVE MALE OFFENDERS, AND ASSAULTIVE FEMALE OFFENDERS WERE LOWER THAN NONASSAULTIVE FEMALES ON THE HY AND MF SCALES. THE RESULTS OF THE CODE TYPE ANALYSIS SHOWS THAT THE 4-3 MMPI PROFILE HAD THE SMALLEST PERCENTAGE OF ASSAULTIVE OFFENSES, WHILE THE 4-8 PROFILE HAD THE LARGEST. THE RESULTS DO NOT SUPPORT THE EXISTENCE OF A SINGLE, CLEARLY DEFINED SET OF TRAITS OR A PROFILE TYPE INVOLVED IN ASSAULTIVE OFFENSES. TABULAR DATA AND REFERENCES ARE PROVIDED. (DAG)