Development of a Self-Report Measure of Outcome Expectancies for Crime

Abstract

A group of 193 male inmates served as subjects for a study in which the development and initial validation of a 16-item self-report measure of outcome expectancies for crime (OEC) is detailed. Analyses produced internal consistency estimates (Cronbach alpha coefficient) of between .73 and .91 and 10-week test-retest stability correlations of between .40 and .48 for the five OEC scales (total positive, positive social, positive control, positive identity, negative). The total positive expectancies, positive social expectancies, and positive control expectancies scales were found to correlate with the Current and Historical Criminal Thinking scales of the Psychological Inventory of Criminal Thinking Styles (PICTS), while negative expectancies for crime were significantly lower in inmates evaluating the anticipated consequences of property crime relative to inmates assessing the expected outcomes of a violent or drug offense. Finally, a confirmatory factor analysis supported the four-factor structure of the OEC (positive social, positive control, positive identity, negative), while multidimensional scaling revealed that outcome expectancies for crime fall along a single dimension: positive-negative.