NCJ Number
208146
Journal
Criminal Justice and Behavior Volume: 31 Issue: 6 Dated: December 2004 Pages: 734-751
Date Published
December 2004
Length
18 pages
Annotation
This study examined the rate of self-reported psychological distress and dysfunction among a sample of male and female offenders upon admission to prison as measured by the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory-2 (MMPI-2).
Abstract
The MMPI-2 allows the examinee the opportunity to provide a self-report of his/her current psychological functioning, and it is the most frequently used objective assessment device in psychological evaluations. The sample in the current study consisted of 34,281 men and 6,878 women who entered Ohio prisons from February 1992 through April 1996. All had been routinely administered the MMPI-2 upon intake. Overall, a substantial proportion of the men (65.6 percent) and women (69.8 percent) attained a T-score of 65 or greater on at least 1 of the 8 MMPI-2 clinical scales. A breakdown by scale of the percentage of inmates who attained elevations at various T-score levels suggests that although the most frequently elevated scales were those that measure antisocial characteristics, a substantial number of the inmates reported a variety of psychological, social, and behavioral problems that are likely to benefit from intervention by mental health professionals. The MMPI-2, in conjunction with other screening methods, could identify mental health problems at admission and result in earlier, more cost-effective delivery of mental health services. 4 tables and 22 references