Jeremy F. Mills

The Accuracy of Five Risk Appraisal Instruments in Predicting Institutional Misconduct and New Convictions

The predictive accuracy of the Psychopathy Checklist–Revised, Level of Service Inventory– Revised, HCR-20, Violence Risk Appraisal Guide, and the Lifestyle Criminality Screening Form were compared in a sample of male offenders. Both correlations and receiver operating characteristics measured the relationship between the instruments and the predictive outcome criteria of institutional misconduct and release failure. Although some instruments performed better across the outcome measures, there were no statistical differences in predictive accuracy among the instruments.

Treating offenders with mental illness: A research synthesis.

The purpose of this research synthesis was to examine treatment effects across studies of the service providers to offenders with mental illness. Meta-analytic techniques were applied to 26 empirical studies obtained from a review of 12,154 research documents. Outcomes of interest in this review included measures of both psychiatric and criminal functioning. Although meta-analytic results are based on a small sample of available studies, results suggest interventions with offenders with mental illness effectively reduced symptoms of distress, improving offenders ability to cope with their problems, and resulted in improved behavioral markers including institutional adjustment and behavioral functioning. Furthermore, interventions specifically designed to meet the psychiatric and criminal justice needs of offenders with mental illness have shown to produce significant reductions in psychiatric and criminal recidivism. Finally, this review highlighted admission policies and treatment strategies (e.g., use of homework), which produced the most positive benefits. Results of this research synthesis are directly relevant for service providers in both criminal justice and mental health systems (e.g., psychiatric hospitals) as well as community settings by informing treatment strategies for the first time, which are based on empirical evidence. In addition, the implications of these results to policy makers tasked with the responsibility of designating services for this special needs population are highlighted.

Measures of Criminal Attitudes and Associates (MCAA) Development, Factor Structure, Reliability, and Validity

Recent meta-analysis has demonstrated that attitudes and associates are among the best predictors of antisocial behavior. Despite this finding, there are few psychometrically developed and validated measures of criminal and antisocial attitudes and associates. This study reviews the theoretical and empirical development of the Measures of Criminal Attitudes and Associates (MCAA), which is composed of two parts. Part A is a quantified self-report measure of criminal friends. Part B contains four attitude scales: Violence, Entitlement, Antisocial Intent, and Associates. The MCAA showed reasonable reliability (internal consistency and temporal stability) and appropriate convergent and discriminant validity. Criterion validity was evidenced in the scale’s relationship with criminal history variables, and a factor analysis confirmed the four distinct scale domains.

The Measures of Criminal Attitudes and Associates (MCAA): The Prediction of General and Violent Recidivism

Recent research has demonstrated that antisocial attitudes and antisocial associates are among the better predictors of antisocial behavior. This study tests the predictive validity of the Measures of Criminal Attitudes and Associates (MCAA) in a sample of adult male offenders. The MCAA comprises two parts: Part A is a quantified self-report measure of criminal friends, and Part B contains four attitude scales: Violence, Entitlement, Antisocial Intent, and Associates. The MCAA scales showed predictive validity for the outcomes of general and violent recidivism. In addition, the MCAA significantly improved the prediction of violent recidivism over an actuarial risk assessment instrument alone. Discussion centers on the contribution that antisocial attitudes and associates make to risk assessment.

Impression Management and Self-Report Among Violent Offenders

Offenders are assumed by many to employ socially desirable responding (SDR) response styles when completing self-report measures. Contrary to expectations, prior research has shown that accounting for SDR in self-report measures of antisocial constructs does not improve the relationship with outcome. Despite this, many self-report measures reliably predict future criminal outcome criteria. The present research examines the relationship of SDR (self-deception and impression management) with self-reported antisocial attitudes and the outcome of criminal recidivism in a sample of violent offenders. Offenders high on impression management reported lower antisocial attitudes. However, when impression management was statistically partialed from antisocial attitudes, the relationship with recidivism tended to diminish, though not to a statistically significant degree. This finding, though hypothesized based on previous empirical findings, is contrary to the theoretical assumption that controlling for SDR should improve the relationship of self-report with outcome. The discussion centers on the implications of routinely removing impression management from self-report.

Novaco Anger Scale: Reliability and Validity within an Adult Criminal Sample:

This study investigated the reliability and validity of the Novaco Anger Scale (NAS; Novaco, 1994) with two groups of correctional offenders, General Admissions and Violent Admissions. Predominantly White male offenders (N = 204), ranging in age from 18 to 69 years, participated in the study. One-month test-retest reliability for the General Admissions group ranged from .78 to .91 using both similar (paper-pencil) and dissimilar (computerized) retesting methods, with lower scores occurring on retest. Significantly lower scores were found for the Violent Admissions group as compared with the General Admissions group. Concurrent validity was examined in the Violent Admissions group using three anger/aggression measures and clinical ratings of eight anger dimensions. Stronger correlations with other similar anger measures than with negative affect indices revealed concurrent and discriminant validity. Implications for clinical use in an offender population are discussed.

An Investigation Into the Relationship Between Socially Desirable Responding and Offender Self-Report

Recent research has shown that offenders high on impression management report fewer antisocial attitudes and less antisocial history and are objectively rated at less risk to commit a criminal offense. Further, impression management has been shown to be significantly and negatively related to criminal behavior. The present research investigated the hypothesis that this relationship may be due to the honest responding of offenders to items measuring relatively minor antisocial and criminal behaviors. The Balanced Inventory of Desirable Responding (now the Paulhus Deception Scales; D. L. Paulhus, 1994, 1998) is shown to be confounded with criminal-risk variance, and it may lead to incorrect conclusions when used with correctional samples. The discussion centers on the relationship of socially desirable responding with other constructs important in the prediction of reoffending within a correctional population.

Screening for suicide risk factors in prison inmates: Evaluating the efficiency of the Depression, Hopelessness and Suicide Screening Form (DHS)

The Depression, Hopelessness and Suicide Screening Form (DHS; Mills & Kroner, 2002) is a recently developed self-report instrument to aid in screening inmates in the titled areas. Research has shown the DHS to have good internal consistency, factor structure and construct validity. The present study extends the previous validation research by comparing the disclosure of suicide risk factors on the DHS with both interview-based and file review information. In addition, the DHS scores were used to predict psychological distress. The results indicate that despite the paper-and-pencil self-report approach of the DHS it is comparably efficient in gathering suicide risk factors to other methods. In addition, the predictive accuracy of the DHS in identifying inmates experiencing psychological distress was confirmed. The current study has implications for the method of collection of suicide screening information. The discussion centres on the potential of self-report in screening for suicide and self-harm indicators in inmate populations.

AN EXAMINATION OF THE GENERALIZABILITY OF THE LSI-R AND VRAG PROBABILITY BINS

Statistics such as the Pearson’s r and Receiver Operating Characteristics are often used to test the generalization of criminal and violence prediction instruments. However, these analyses overlook potential error in the assessment of risk if the rates of offending within the initial validation samples are assumed accurate for other samples. This study examined the generalizability of the Level of Service Inventory-Revised and Violence Risk Appraisal Guide probability bins in a predominantly violent correctional sample. The findings showed that the initial bin probabilities were not transferable to our sample of predominantly violent male offenders. An empirical method of optimal binning was introduced. The discussion centered on the accurate use of bin probabilities in the communication of risk.

Anger as a Predictor of Institutional Misconduct and Recidivism in a Sample of Violent Offenders

This study investigated the relationship of self-report anger measures that measured anger within the context of interpersonal conflict or the outward expression of anger with criminal history, institutional misconduct, and recidivism. An incarcerated sample of 102 violent male offenders participated in the study. Self-reported anger was not associated with prior convictions and incarcerations. Selective scales were associated with minor institutional misconduct, but these relationships did not remain once impression management was accounted for. There was no relationship between anger and postrelease performance. Implications regarding the prediction of institutional misconduct and recidivism are discussed.