Antisocial Thinking Research Articles

The Concurrent and Predictive Validity of a Needs and Responsivity Assessment System

ABSTRACT Using a sample of nearly 2,100 people incarcerated in Minnesota’s prison system, this study examined the concurrent and predictive validity of a needs and responsivity assessment system. For concurrent validity, we evaluated the relationship between the 13 needs and responsivity domains with assessed recidivism risk levels. For predictive validity, we analyzed the association between the domains and recidivism for a sub-sample that had been released from prison prior to 2023. The hypothesized needs domains – anti-social thinking, anti-social peers, education, employment, substance use disorder, housing/homelessness, and family/domestic – were significantly associated with assessed and observed recidivism, while most of the hypothesized responsivity domains – mental health, religiosity, motivation and learning style – were not. The results suggest self-identity is a distinct criminogenic need. Gender and racial/ethnic differences for concurrent and predictive validity were relatively minimal across the 13 domains.

Understanding Criminogenic Risk Factors Among United States Military Veterans: An Updated Literature Review

Justice-involved veterans (JIVs) are a high-priority subgroup within the U.S. judicial system. In recent years, empirical research into the characteristics, needs, and outcomes of this veteran subgroup has developed rapidly. To allow research to better inform efforts to support JIVs, a systematic review was completed to organize existing literature on criminogenic risk within this population through the lens of the Risk-Need-Responsivity Model. Of the eight risk factors theorized by the Risk-Need-Responsivity Model, history of antisocial behavior and substance use had the most robust evidence as criminogenic risk factors for veteran justice involvement. Modest evidence was identified for antisocial personality, educational and occupational difficulties, and disruptions to family and marital relationships as risk factors. However, only limited evidence was identified for antisocial thinking, affiliation with antisocial peers, and lack of prosocial activities as risk factors due to these factors being relatively underassessed in research. Such patterns provide insight into potential interventions and supports for JIVs while also highlighting areas for continued research.

The ties that bind: mediating the connection between perceived parental support/monitoring and perceived peer delinquency with two forms of antisocial cognition

ABSTRACT Prior research has shown that social variables are linked to delinquent and criminal outcomes by facets of antisocial cognition. The current study set out to determine if a person’s perception of different social variables, in this case parental support/monitoring and peer delinquency, are likewise linked by some of these same variables, cognitive insensitivity specifically. Analyses performed across three time periods measured one year apart using data from the Pocono Bullying Study (N = 845, 406 boys and 439 girls, mean age at baseline = 11.2 years) revealed that one of the two pathways (parental monitoring → cognitive insensitivity → peer delinquency) predicted to be significant, was, in fact, significant. Conversely, the two pathways predicted to be non-significant (i.e. the ones mediated by cognitive impulsivity) were non-significant, although the difference between the one significant insensitivity-mediated pathway and its corresponding impulsivity-mediated pathway failed to achieve significance. The results of this study provide partial support for the notion that facets of antisocial thinking may not only mediate relationships between social context variables and delinquent outcomes, but relationships between certain groups of perceived social context variables as well.

Mediating the Bullying-to-Delinquency Transition With Peer Delinquency and Cognitive Insensitivity

This study sought to determine whether peer delinquency, cognitive insensitivity, and/or their interaction mediated the transition from bullying perpetration to delinquency. Data from 845 early adolescent youth (406 boys, 439 girls) organized into three waves were subjected to path analysis, with peer delinquency and cognitive insensitivity as parallel mediators. Results revealed that cognitive insensitivity successfully mediated the relationship between Wave 1 bullying perpetration and Wave 3 participant delinquency, whereas peer delinquency and the peer × insensitivity interaction did not. It would seem that involvement in bullying behavior may lead to a rise in antisocial thinking of the neutralization/moral disengagement type and that this thinking, referred to in this study as cognitive insensitivity, may then stimulate future involvement in delinquent behavior.

A new dimensional measure of antisocial behaviour evaluation (ASBE)

ABSTRACT Adolescent thinking about the wrongness of antisocial behaviours plays a key role in their own engagement in antisocial conducts. Nevertheless, measures assessing adolescent antisocial evaluations are not common in literature. Informed by the social domain theory and using adolescent actual thinking about antisocial behaviours, this study developed and validated a new dimensional scale of antisocial behaviour evaluation (ASBE) with two sub-samples of Italian adolescents (Total N = 678; M age = 15.48, SD = 1.61; 291 males). Applying the exploratory factor analysis within the confirmatory factor analysis framework (abbreviated, E/CFA), we found four correlated dimensions of ASBE: The impersonal dimension, including violations carried out against social and legal norms, without any direct contact with other people; the interpersonal dimension, reflecting violations that imply harming other persons; the personal-risky dimension, containing items that refer to violations whose consequences primarily affect one’s own safety and health; the loyalty dimension, representing violations that concern reciprocity and loyalty among peers and friends. The scale showed a good internal consistency and validity. The results support a promising use of this new measure for assessing adolescent antisocial thinking and investigating its associations with social cognition, moral reasoning and behaviour.

Risk of Revocation Among Batterers: A Preliminary Analysis of Criminogenic, Intimate Partner Violence, and Mental Health Risks.

This study examined whether criminogenic risk, domestic violence risk, and mental health diagnoses would predict probation revocation among batterers in a felony domestic violence court (FDVC). Review of probation files included baseline assessments and probation disposition for FDVC probationers from January 2014 to March 2018 (n = 64). Results of the binary logistic regression analysis showed that criminogenic risk was a significant predictor of FDVC probation revocation. Interventions to prevent unsuccessful completion of domestic violence courts may benefit from programming that addresses early engagement in treatment, antisocial thinking patterns, and treatment for substance use disorders.

University Students' Relationship-Based Mentoring in School Settings.

How university students perform the tasks of mentoring, and the kinds of activities that are successful and unsuccessful in relationship-based mentoring interactions when mentors are instructed to "first establish relationships and then use the relationship to promote prosocial thinking and behaviors," remains an unfamiliar area of youth mentoring. Thus, the purpose of this study is to develop some understanding of steps criminal justice majors took and the behavioral goals and objectives they pursued during their semester-long mentoring interactions with primary, middle, and high school pupils within a local school district. Conventional content analysis methods were used to systematically identify, classify, and code themes and patterns of self-reported activities. Results show that student-mentors overwhelmingly engaged in activities that addressed known risk factors associated with antisocial thinking, attitudes, and behaviors. The results provide insights into the dynamics of this form of mentoring that emphasizes the importance of healthy relationships between protégés and mentors and advance reasons for further investigation of the effectiveness of a relationship-based mentoring approach.

Young Offenders, Maltreatment, and Trauma: A Pilot Study

Although a large number of studies offer consistent and persuasive evidence that exposure to childhood maltreatment and subsequent juvenile offending behaviours are related, relatively few studies have investigated the mechanisms by which maltreatment might increase risk in young offender populations. The aim of this pilot study was to collate data on the key areas of need from 28 young male offenders in secure care in an Australian jurisdiction, with a specific focus on the inter-relationship between scores on self-report measures of maltreatment, trauma, and mental health. The findings provide preliminary evidence that these key constructs are linked to other proximal risk factors for juvenile offending, such as poor anger regulation and antisocial thinking patterns. They offer a rationale for considering the sequelae of maltreatment in the development of service delivery frameworks for young offenders.

Antisocial thinking in adolescents: further psychometric development of the Antisocial Beliefs and Attitudes Scale (ABAS).

Investigating the impact of "off-line" cognitive structures on the broad range of antisocial behaviors shown by young people has been hampered by the absence of psychometrically robust measures of antisocial cognitions. This study evaluates the psychometric properties of the Antisocial Beliefs and Attitudes Scale (ABAS), a developmentally sensitive measure of young people's beliefs and attitudes toward social standards of acceptable behavior at home and at school. The reliability and validity of the ABAS was assessed in a sample of British school children (N = 486) aged 9-16 years (M = 12.79, SD = 1.90) and male young offenders (N = 84) aged 13-17 years (M = 15.15, SD = 0.27). Participants completed the ABAS, together with a self-report measure of antisocial behavior; maternal reports of antisocial activity were also collected in the offending sample. Confirmatory factor analysis replicated the 2-factor structure of Rule Noncompliance and Peer Conflict previously derived from a sample of Canadian school children, and these factors showed good test-retest reliability. Rule Noncompliance predicted self-reported antisocial behavior for ages 11-16 years, while Peer Conflict predicted antisocial behavior for ages 9-16 years. Comparisons between young offenders and an age-matched subsample of males from the school group showed significant differences. In young offenders, Rule Noncompliance and Peer Conflict were significantly predictive of self-reported antisocial behavior, while Rule Noncompliance independently predicted mothers' ratings of their sons' antisocial behavior. These findings provide support for the ABAS as a psychometrically sound measure of antisocial thinking.

Predicting recidivism in sex offenders with the Psychological Inventory of Criminal Thinking Styles (PICTS).

The purpose of this study was to determine whether the Psychological Inventory of Criminal Thinking Styles (PICTS) was capable of predicting recidivism in 322 male sex offenders released from prison-based sex offender programs in a Midwestern state. The Static-99R and PICTS General Criminal Thinking (GCT), Reactive (R), and Entitlement (En) scores all correlated significantly with general recidivism, the Static-99R correlated significantly with violent recidivism, and the Static-99R score and PICTS GCT, Proactive (P), and En scores correlated significantly with failure to register as a sex offender (FTR) recidivism. Area under the curve effect size estimates varied from small to large, and Cox regression analyses revealed that the PICTS En score achieved incremental validity relative to the Static-99R in predicting general recidivism and the PICTS GCT, P, and En scores achieved incremental validity relative to the Static-99R in predicting FTR recidivism. It is speculated that the PICTS in general and the En scale in particular may have utility in risk management and treatment planning for sex offenders by virtue of their focus on antisocial thinking.

Criminal and Substance Involvement from Adolescence to Adulthood: Precursors, Mediators, and Long-term Effects

The purpose of this study was to determine whether comorbid adolescent criminal and substance involvement (ACSI) was more predictive of adult criminal/substance involvement than adolescent criminal or substance involvement alone, and identify potential precursors and mediators of this relationship. Using data from 6502 members of the four-wave National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health), it was found that ACSI at Wave 2 (ages 13–20) predicted adult criminal and substance involvement at Waves 3 (ages 18–26) and 4 (ages 24–32). In addition, antisocial cognition at Wave 3 partially mediated the relationship between ACSI at Wave 2 and criminal/substance involvement at Wave 4 and Wave 1 school problems correlated with the independent, dependent, and mediating variables. Theoretical and practical implications of this study include the role of early school problems in the development of ACSI and the significance of antisocial thinking in maintaining this involvement.

Comparative Analysis of Attitudes and Emotions Among Inmates

This study examines the relationship between behavioral health problems and criminogenic thinking, aggression, self-control, and hopelessness, controlling for other demographic and criminal behavior characteristics among incarcerated persons. Male ( n = 3,986) and female ( n = 218) inmates expected to be released within 24 months from prisons affiliated with a northeastern state department of corrections completed the Criminal Sentiments Scale–Modified, Buss–Perry Aggression Questionnaire Short-Form, Brief Self-Control Scale, and Beck Hopelessness Scale. Results indicated that behavioral health variables were significantly and substantially correlated with antisocial thinking, aggression, self-control, and hopelessness. For male inmates, serious mental illness and substance abuse problems significantly increased antisocial attitudes, aggression, and hopelessness scores and decreased self-control scores. In preparing incarcerated persons with and without mental illnesses for reentry to the community, it is critical to develop and implement evidence-based interventions that respond to attitudinal and emotional risk factors that predict relapse and recidivism.

Antisocial behaviour genesis from the social information processing perspective

Quite numerous research findings show that social information processing underlies different forms of prosocial and antisocial behaviour. Although most of data come from research of children of different age, interest in social information processing and behaviour in later periods of life markedly grows. More and more authors turn to the question of adult social information processing and antisocial behaviour, considering it as a promising field for criminal behaviour forecast and correction. Two aims ofthis paper are: 1) to describe the main developmental features of social information processing from early childhood to late adolescence and early adulthood; 2) to make assumptions on the connections between social information processing and the antisocial (criminal) behaviour of adults. In this article, we review findings of more than two last decades as it is the most intense period for the development of knowledge in this field. Analysis of the literature shows that patterns of social information processing of people with tendencies to prosocial and antisocial behaviour already differ in groups of children. These differences become more vivid in groups of adolescents as they tend to use antisocial thinking strategies more often and in more steps of information processing than younger children. We suppose that adults have similar but even more clear and vivid patterns of specific social information processing and behaviour than adolescents.Social knowledge of adults is more complex, abstract and differentiated to specific social situations in comparison with people of younger age. Moreover, their information processing is more rapid and complex as well as more tendentious and rigid. Automation of information processing might suspend the learning process and be a source of information processing mistakes in new social situations. We assume that adults, in comparison with children, must have a rather stable and effectively working social information processing directly linked to specific forms of prosocial or antisocial behaviour. We hypothesize that because of a longer antisocial (criminal) experience, some specific features of social knowledge and information processing might appear. Therefore, researches of social information processing that underlie specific forms of antisocial (criminal) behaviour seem to be most informative and useful in this field. Moreover, it is still very little known about the role of emotions in antisocial behaviour genesis. There is some eloquent data on their important impact on social information processing underlying antisocial behaviour, but we suppose that this impact might differ in particular stages of development.

The evolutionary role of self-deceptive enhancement as a protective factor against antisocial cognitions

This study investigates the relationship between self-deception and variables associated with antisociality in the general population (i.e., mating effort, antisocial thinking, psychopathy, and personality), seeking to provide an evolutionary explanation for how self-deception might influence antisocial thinking. The Mating Effort Scale (MES); an adjusted version of the Psychological Inventory of Criminal Thinking Styles (PICTS); the Levenson Self-Report Psychopathy Scale (LSRP); the NEO-Five Factor Inventory-Revised (NEO-FFI-R), and the Paulhus Deception Scales (PDS) were administered to 95 participants (33 males, 62 females, mean age = 36.4 years). Self-deceptive enhancement correlated significantly and negatively with Neuroticism ( r = −.30, p < 0.01), and positively with Openness ( r = .27, p < 0.05) and Conscientiousness ( r = .43, p < 0.01). Mating effort related primarily to the PICTS and self-reported psychopathy. Factor analysis of the scales produced two underlying components; ‘careless non-cooperation’ (defined by impulsive antisociality) and ‘careful cooperation’ (reflecting dutifulness, emotional stability, and social desirability). Our results suggest self-deceptive enhancement may be a protective factor against antisocial thinking and behaviour, and that this is impeded by high neuroticism and impulsive thinking.

Antisocial Beliefs and Attitudes in Pre-adolescent and Adolescent Youth: the Development of the Antisocial Beliefs and Attitudes Scales (ABAS)

A focus on antisocial beliefs and attitudes has informed both the assessment and treatment literature, and practice, in youth justice service provision. This study attempts to broaden the construct of antisocial beliefs and attitudes and reports on the psychometric development of the Antisocial Beliefs and Attitudes Scale (ABAS). The ABAS is a new instrument for measuring antisocial thinking in older children and adolescents, which is developmentally-sensitive, broad-based, and assesses domains grounded in the empirical literature on childhood conduct problems and delinquency. Along with a self-reported measure of antisocial behavior, the ABAS was administered to 425 school children aged 10–18 (M = 14.18; SD = 2.31). A meaningful factor structure emerged from our instrument with two of the three factors, Rule Non-Compliance and Peer Conflict, predicting self-reported antisocial behavior while demonstrating sensitivity to age and gender. These findings are encouraging in our aim to “bridge” the measurement gap, by developing a reliable and valid measure of antisocial thinking applicable to older children and adolescents.

Testing an Interactive Model of Symptom Severity in Conduct Disordered Youth

This study presents data from 85 young offenders referred for court-ordered mental health assessments. A model of interactive risk was tested, in which parent-child relationships, social-contextual adversity, and antisocial thinking were predicted to be associated with aggressive and delinquent behavior in a multiplicative fashion. For aggression, strong associations were found with parent-adolescent alienation, but there were no interactions with social-contextual risk or antisocial thinking. For delinquency, parent-adolescent relationship quality interacted with both social-contextual risk and antisocial thinking. Better parent-adolescent trust-communication was associated with an attenuated effect of social-contextual risk and antisocial thinking on delinquency. Greater parent-adolescent alienation, however, was associated with relatively high levels of delinquent behavior irrespective of social-contextual risk, whereas adolescents reporting less attachment-alienation showed greater delinquency as social-contextual risk increased.

Effects of study duration, frequency of observation, and sample size on power in studies of group differences in polynomial change.

Consider a study in which 2 groups are followed over time to assess group differences in the average rate of change, rate of acceleration, or higher degree polynomial effect. In designing such a study, one must decide on the duration of the study, frequency of observation, and number of participants. The authors consider how these choices affect statistical power and show that power depends on a standardized effect size, the sample size, and a person-specific reliability coefficient. This reliability, in turn, depends on study duration and frequency. These relations enable researchers to weigh alternative designs with respect to feasibility and power. The authors illustrate the approach using data from published studies of antisocial thinking during adolescence and vocabulary growth during infancy.