Use of the Psychological Inventory of Criminal Thinking Styles in a Group of Female Offenders

• NCJ Number: 170759
• Journal: Criminal Justice and Behavior Volume: 25 Issue: 1 Dated: (March 1998) Pages: 125-134
• Author(s): G D Walters; W N Elliott; D Miscoll
• Date Published: 1998
• Length: 10 pages
• Publication Format: Article
• Publication Type: Research (Applied/Empirical)
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

This article explores the psychometric performance of the Psychological Inventory of Criminal Thinking Styles (PICTS) in a group of female offenders.

Abstract

Subjects included 227 female inmates from two separate correctional facilities. The PICTS was used to obtain data on two validity scales (confusion and defensiveness) and eight thinking styles (mollification, cutoff, entitlement, power orientation, sentimentality, superoptimism, cognitive indolence, and discontinuity). Internal consistency, test-retest stability, concurrent validity, and factor structure of the PICTS were comparable to results obtained in an earlier study of male offenders. Females, however, achieved significantly higher scores on seven of the eight PICTS thinking style scales relative to the male normative sample. Two possible reasons why female offenders achieved significantly higher scores on PICTS scales than male offenders are suggested: (1) female offenders are more deviant than male offenders, given the greater prohibitions against acting out in women; and (2) female offenders are more open in completing the PICTS than previously tested male subjects. The potential value of the PICTS in measuring criminal thinking patterns of female offenders is discussed. 8 references and 4 tables