Criminal Thinking Research Articles

Moderating the Criminal Thinking–Delinquency Relationship with a Free Market Cultural Ethos: Integrating Micro- and Macro-Level Concepts in Criminology

The current study tested the interaction between micro- and macro-level criminological concepts to determine whether a free market cultural ethos moderated the criminal thinking–delinquency connection. Using a cross-national sample of 65,923 youth (32,614 boys, 33,309 girls, 10 to 20 years of age), the link between criminal thinking and delinquency was explored in 28 nations, each of which had been scored on the Heritage Foundation’s Index of Economic Freedom. Results revealed that a free market cultural ethos had a significant moderating effect on the criminal thinking–delinquency relationship. These results suggest that macro-level free market attitudes toward personal wealth as a cultural goal may interact with such micro-level criminological concepts as criminal thinking and delinquency to alter important criminological associations.

Perpetration and Victimization of Emotional Abuse and Controlling Behaviors in a Sample of Batterer Intervention Program’s Participants: An Analysis of Stressors and Risk Factors

The study employs a sample of 584 men and women referred to a multisite BIP and investigates IPV risk factors and stressors. The study also identifies unique risk factors and stressors in association with both IPV perpetration and IPV victimization. The findings show that women in the sample were more likely than men to report IPV victimization but the difference between the two groups is only marginally significant. Criminal thinking shows the most robust findings and is significantly associated with both IPV perpetration and IPV victimization. Mental health problems are consistently associated with both IPV perpetration and IPV victimization. The study’s findings are particularly relevant for the design and implementation of BIP that address participants’ needs based on gender.

Ambient temperature as a moderator of the reactive criminal thinking – violent offending relationship: a multilevel analysis

PurposeThis study aims to investigate the potential moderating effect of the average annual ambient temperature in 24 European countries on the relationship between criminal thinking (reactive vs proactive) and juvenile offending (violent vs property).Design/methodology/approachThe average annual ambient temperatures found in 24 European countries were correlated with measures of reactive vs proactive criminal thinking and violent vs property offending in 56,518 students (50.4% female) from the second International Self-Reported Delinquency Study. These data were analyzed using a multilevel model comprising three Level 1 (student) predictors – age, sex and family structure – one Level 2 (country) predictor – ambient temperature – and two outcome measures – a reactive: proactive criminal thinking index (RPI) and a violent: property offending index (VPI).FindingsThe RPI and VPI correlated significantly with the Level 1 predictors, and the annual ambient temperatures from these 24 countries (Level 2 predictor) correlated positively with RPI and VPI and moderated the effect of reactive criminal thinking (RCT) on violent offending.Practical implicationsThese findings indicate that ambient temperature correlates with violent/aggressive offending after the effects of property/non-aggressive offending have been controlled and suggest that ambient temperature may moderate the relationship between RCT and violent offending by affecting the decision-making process.Originality/valueThe contribution made by this study to the literature is that it illustrates how a macro-level influence in the form of average annual temperature can impact on micro-level processes in the form of criminal thinking and violent behavior.

Actor perspective and moral reasoning: Do levels of criminal thinking moderate this relationship among non‐criminals?

A large body of literature has explored moral decision-making; however, fewer have examined the explicit role of criminal thinking (CT). This study sought to determine whether moral judgment is influenced by CT in the general population and if this relationship further depends on the type of scenario (i.e., immoral vs. illegal) and/or the actor orientation (i.e., self vs. other). Using a sample of 239 U.S. adults and hypothetical case vignettes, results showed that those who endorsed higher levels of CT rated socially deviant behaviors, regardless of the type of scenario, as significantly more morally acceptable than participants who endorsed lower levels of CT. However, this difference was more pronounced for the immoral dilemma compared to the illegal dilemma. Specifically, proactive CT processes led to higher justification for the immoral dilemma. Neither general nor reactive CT were significantly associated with moral reasoning for the illegal dilemma. Among a mostly non-offending sample, this finding makes sense as it appears participants' levels of criminal thinking may have been high enough to rationalize an immoral dilemma but not so high as to allow for rationalization of an illegal dilemma. No significant differences were found concerning actor orientation. This research not only has important implications for better understanding traits associated with moral decision-making in everyday choices, but it may also have practical application in legal contexts. However, further research is needed in these contexts. Findings were also limited by a lack of racial diversity among participants.

Cognitive Impulsivity as a Mediator of the Parental Knowledge-Childhood Aggression Relationship

In a previous study, reactive criminal thinking or cognitive impulsivity mediated the relationship between parental knowledge and delinquency. This study sought to determine whether cognitive impulsivity also mediated the relationship between parental knowledge and childhood aggression. A path analysis was performed on a sample of 438 early adolescent boys ( n = 206) and girls ( n = 232) from the Illinois Study of Bullying and Sexual Violence using three waves of non-overlapping data. As predicted, cognitive impulsivity mediated the relationship between parental knowledge and childhood aggression, but cognitive insensitivity did not. The results of this study provide ongoing support for the general conceptual argument that childhood aggression parallels delinquency in certain respects and that parental knowledge deters both future delinquency and childhood aggression by reducing the cognitive impulsivity that is central to the behavioral patterns of delinquency and childhood aggression.

Are the Criminogenic Effects of Incarceration Mediated by a Change in Criminal Thinking or a Change in Perceived Certainty?

The purpose of the current study was to determine whether a change in criminal thinking or a change in perceived certainty mediates the putative criminogenic effect of incarceration. A path analysis of 1,170 male delinquents revealed that incarceration prior to age 19 produced a negative rather than positive effect on offending behavior at age 20, although it did predict an increase in proactive criminal thinking (PCT) from age 18 to age 19. PCT, in turn, predicted a rise in past year offending. Perceived certainty of punishment, on the other hand, failed to mediate the effect of incarceration on future offending.

Association between childhood adversity and criminal thinking: the role of attachment

ABSTRACT The current cross-sectional study adopted structural equation modeling (SEM) to examine the association between childhood adversity and criminal thinking, and the role of attachment being a mediator in this relationship, in an offending sample. Data were collected from a sample of 209 inmates (169 of which were male) in a local jail. The results of SEM analyses indicated that childhood adversity was positively associated with attachment anxiety, attachment avoidance, and criminal thinking. Attachment avoidance was positively associated with criminal thinking and mediated the influence of childhood adversity on criminal thinking. Specifically, greater childhood adversity predicted higher attachment avoidance, which in turn was associated with higher levels of criminal thinking. Attachment anxiety did not correlate with criminal thinking; nor did it mediate the influence of childhood adversity on criminal thinking. The findings suggested that childhood adversity and insecure attachment are important risk factors in treating criminal thinking. Practitioners may consider incorporating therapies that facilitate self-reflective functions into offender rehabilitation programs or offer a taste of secure base for justice-involved individuals with childhood adversity.

Criminal thinking, certainty of apprehension, and the decision to engage in antisocial behavior: A study of day treatment program clients

The purpose of this study was to determine whether criminal thinking moderates the relationship between certainty of apprehension (50%, 10%, 1%) and likelihood of engaging in three antisocial hypothetical acts (cheating on a test, property damage, and driving drunk). Proactive criminal thinking (PCT), a manifestation of the planned, calculated, amoral, and instrumental features of antisocial cognition, and reactive criminal thinking (RCT), a reflection of the impulsive, irresponsible, reckless, and emotional aspects of antisocial cognition, served as between-subjects variables in this study. A repeated measures analysis of covariance performed on 67 (43 males, 24 females) day treatment program clients revealed that the likelihood of engaging in antisocial behavior was disproportionately elevated when participants were high in PCT and low in certainty. These results indicate that as the certainty of apprehension goes down, persons with elevated levels of proactive criminal thinking are disproportionately inclined to engage in antisocial and criminal behavior.

HOPE is a good thing? Probationer perceptions of and experiences with the honest opportunity probation with enforcement demonstration field experiment

ABSTRACT This article examines how the Honest Opportunity Probation with Enforcement (HOPE) program was received by probationers in the context of a large-scale replication and evaluation trial. The HOPE DFE found mostly null effects from HOPE, begging the question of why this popular intervention failed to deliver desired results. Computer assisted interviews with nearly 1,000 HOPE and control probationers and open ended in-person interviews with 21 HOPE probationers suggest that HOPE may have been better received by probationers who were less entrenched in criminal thinking and attitudes and who were more motivated to avoid ongoing consequences of antisocial behavior. HOPE may have struggled with probationers who were indifferent to or dismissive of the rigid sanctioning strategy delivered by HOPE.

Parental Control as a Stimulus for Youth Control: Mediating the Parental Knowledge–Child Delinquency Relationship With Cognitive Impulsivity

Parental knowledge was investigated as a foil to reactive criminal thinking, as represented in the current study by cognitive impulsivity. Cognitive impulsivity and neutralization were tested as mediators of the parental knowledge–child delinquency relationship in 1,734 early adolescents (811 boys, 923 girls) from the Gang Resistance and Education Training (GREAT) study. A path analysis of the first three waves of GREAT data revealed that Wave 2 cognitive impulsivity but not Wave 2 neutralization techniques negatively mediated the link between Wave 1 parental knowledge and Wave 3 child delinquency. These results were replicated in variables measured at Waves 2 through 4. Parental control, in the form of parental knowledge and monitoring, may therefore prevent delinquency by countering cognitive impulsivity.

Employment Perceptions of Parolees: The Role of Perceived Barriers and Criminal Thinking.

This study explored offenders' perception of their barriers to employment and investigated the role of criminal attitudes in parolees recently released from prison. An analysis of open-ended responses from offenders indicated that they perceived having a criminal record as the largest barrier to employment. Structural equation modeling, utilizing a cross-sectional design, indicated moderate support for a model of criminal thinking as a predictor of perceived barriers and of self-efficacy. Survey results also found that criminal attitudes have a positive direct relationship with perception of barriers in work and education, with perception of barriers increasing as criminal thinking increases. Furthermore, criminal thinking has a negative direct relationship with job search self-efficacy, with job search self-efficacy decreasing as criminal thinking increases. Criminal thinking also had an indirect relationship with career aspirations through job search self-efficacy. Findings have implications for vocational programming for parolees.

Criminal thinking and gang affiliation: antecedents and consequences

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to clarify the relationship between gang affiliation and criminal thinking. Design/methodology/approach A sample of 1,354 youth (1,170 males, 184 females) from the Pathways to Desistance Study served as participants in this study, and a causal mediation path analysis was performed on proactive and reactive criminal thinking, gang affiliation and subsequent offending. Findings Using three waves of data, it was determined that the pathway running from reactive criminal thinking to gang affiliation to proactive criminal thinking was significant, whereas the pathway running from proactive criminal thinking to gang affiliation to reactive criminal thinking was not. A four-wave model, in which violent and income offending were appended to the three-wave model, disclosed similar results. Practical implications Two separate targets for intervention with youth at risk for gang involvement: proactive and reactive criminal thinking. The impulsive, irresponsible, reckless and disinhibited nature of reactive criminal thinking may best be managed with a secondary prevention approach and cognitive-behavioral skills training; the planned, cold, calculating and amoral nature of proactive criminal thinking may best be managed with a tertiary prevention approach and moral retraining. Trauma therapy may be of assistance to youth who have been victimized over the course of their gang experience. Originality/value These findings reveal evidence of a gang selection effect that is independent of the well-documented peer selection effect, in which reactive criminal thinking led to gang affiliation in youthful offenders, particularly non-White offenders, and a gang influence effect, independent of the frequently observed peer selection effect, in which gang affiliation contributed to a rise in proactive criminal thinking.

Desisting from Crime: In-Prison Behaviour and Cognition as Predictors of Post-Release Success

To test the possibility that in-prison behaviour and cognition provide information useful in predicting future desistance from crime, two in-prison variables and nine pre-prison and demographic control variables were correlated with post-prison release success in a group of 1,101 male inmates released from federal prison. A Cox regression proportional hazards survival analysis revealed that fewer disciplinary infractions and lower criminal thinking predicted future desistance, as measured by the absence of post-release arrests or a longer time until first arrest for those who were arrested, net the effects of the pre-prison variables and demographic measures. When disciplinary infractions were subclassified as aggressive (fighting, assault, threatening) or non-aggressive (disobedience, theft, use of intoxicants), only the non-aggressive category achieved significance. Likewise, when criminal thinking was subdivided into proactive and reactive criminal thinking, only the reactive dimension achieved significance. These findings suggest that behaviour and cognition assessed in prison may have value both in predicting desistance upon a person’s release from prison and in clarifying the nature of post-prison release success.

Hostility and reactive criminal thinking as mediators of the violent victimization–violent offending relationship: affect before cognition?

ABSTRACT The purpose of this study was two-fold: 1. determine whether an affective-cognitive construct, hostility, and a cognitive-affective criminal thinking style, reactive criminal thinking (RCT), mediate the relationship between prior violent victimization and future violent offending, and 2. ascertain whether mediator order – hostility before RCT and RCT before hostility – makes a difference in the overall results. Using seven waves of data, three overlapping analyses were performed on data provided by 1,354 youth (1,170 males, 184 females; mean age = 16.04 years) from the Pathways to Desistance study. A two-mediator pathway that placed hostility before RCT (Victimization-1/2/3 → Hostility-2/3/4 → RCT-3/4/5 → Offending-4/5/6) proved significant in all three analyses, whereas the alternate two-mediator pathway, in which the order of the two mediators was reversed (i.e. RCT-2/3/4 → Hostility-3/4/5), was non-significant in two out of the three analyses. Five single-mediator pathways, four of which were mediated by hostility, were also significant. Congruent with aspects of both general strain and criminal lifestyle theories, violent victimization appeared to stimulate short-term situational hostility, which, in turn, facilitated or primed formation of reactive criminal thinking and the youth’s eventual participation in criminal violence, although hostility alone had a significant impact on criminal violence as well.

Effectiveness of Self-Compassion Intervention on Criminal Thinking in Male Prisoners.

This study aimed to investigate the effectiveness of self-compassion intervention on criminal thinking in male prisoners. A quasi-experimental design utilizing pre-test, post-test, and follow-up test and waiting-list control groups was conducted. A total of 24 male prisoners were selected by purposeful sampling and randomized into experimental and waiting list control groups. Participants of experimental group received eight sessions of self-compassion intervention; and all participants answered to psychological inventory of criminal thinking styles (PICTS) as dependent variable at three time points (pre-test, post-test, and 2-month follow-up). A repeated measures analysis of variance was used to analyze the data. Results showed criminal thinking was significantly decreased in experimental group, as compared to control, at post-test phase (p < .01); and improvement of criminal thinking in the follow-up phase has also been continued (p < .05). Therefore, to reduce criminal behaviors or rehabilitation of prisoners, self-compassion based intervention can be used.

Crime and social cognition: a meta-analytic review of the developmental roots of adult criminal thinking

In an effort to investigate and verify the developmental roots of adult criminal thinking, a meta-analysis was performed on nine social cognitive variables organized into three clusters and hypothesized to precede the criminal thinking dimensions of proactive criminal thinking, reactive criminal thinking, and criminal identity. The three proactive antecedents were moral disengagement, neutralization, and positive outcome expectancies for crime; the three reactive antecedents were hostile attribution biases, temporal discounting, and thrill/sensation seeking; and the three criminal identity antecedents were criminal self-efficacy, feared possible selves, and reflected appraisals. A series of random effects meta-analyses were performed, the results of which revealed the presence of significant pooled effect sizes for the proactive (k = 26, r = 0.34), reactive (k = 25, r = 0.25), and criminal identity (k = 11, r = 0.24) antecedents as correlates of juvenile delinquency and adult crime. Restricting the analyses to studies with prospective data indicated that each antecedent cluster successfully predicted future offending. The results of this meta-analytic review denote that social cognitive variables proposed to serve as antecedents to adult criminal thinking both correlate with and predict delinquency and general offending in adolescent populations.

Fagin’s Criminal Thought in Charles Dickens’ Oliver Twist

This research aims to reveal Fagin’s criminal thought in Charles Dickens’ Oliver Twist and to examine the factors that influence Fagin’s criminal thought presented in the novel. This research is classified into library research. The subject of the research is Oliver Twist, Charles Dickens’ fiction novel. The novel is used as the primary source, while books, journals, and articles related to criminal thought theories in psychology were taken as the secondary source. A psychological approach is applied to analyze the data. The collected data were analyzed qualitatively. In analyzing the data, the researcher took five steps. The data were collected from reading and re-reading the text, identifying those that embody criminal thinking, categorizing them based on the objectives of the research, comparing them to the theoretical frameworks, and finally interpreting them using a psychological approach. After conducting the research, it can be drawn some conclusions; first, by seeing the eight aspects of criminal thought, Fagin has five aspects which are classified in the high category, and second, the factors that influence Fagin’s criminal thought reflected in the novel are societal and economic, neighbor-hood and local institutions, and drugs.

Predicting Future Intimate Partner Violence with Past Intimate Partner Violence: The Moderating Role of Proactive and Reactive Criminal Thinking

Intimate partner violence (IPV) is a major public health concern with serious consequences for individuals, families, and society in general. In an effort to expand knowledge in this area, this study assessed whether proactive (planned, calculated, amoral) and reactive (impulsive, irresponsible, emotional) criminal thinking mediated or moderated the past IPV–future IPV relationship in 1,238 individuals released from federal prison. Evaluating the indirect effect of past IPV on future IPV via proactive and reactive criminal thinking failed to produce any significant mediated effects. There was evidence, however, of a moderating effect for proactive criminal thinking, such that prior IPV predicted subsequent IPV recidivism only when proactive criminal thinking was elevated. Reactive criminal thinking, by contrast, failed to moderate the past IPV–future IPV relationship. These findings suggest that proactive criminal thinking may serve as a risk factor for future IPV in individuals with a prior history of domestic violence.

M242. PREDICTORS OF CRIMINAL SENTIMENTS SCALE (CSS-M) SCORES AMONG OUTPATIENTS WITH PSYCHOTIC DISORDERS

BackgroundIndividuals with serious mental illness (SMI) are over-represented in the criminal justice system. One factor that impacts likelihood of incarceration is criminal thinking, and the Criminal Sentiments Scale – Modified (CSS-M) has been shown to predict recidivism. However, no one has examined the CSS-M in outpatients with schizophrenia and other psychotic disorders, and little is known about what predicts high CSS-M scores.MethodsThe data for the current investigation comes from a larger sample of individuals with SMI receiving services from outpatient mental health clinics who were enrolled in a randomized-controlled trial. The CSS-M was verbally administered to everyone during a baseline assessment. The 264 individuals in the sample all have a diagnosis of schizophrenia or another psychotic disorder, and all had been arrested in the last five years. We first explored the impact of demographic factors and adverse childhood experiences (ACE) on CSS-M scores. For the 258 participants with complete data for all five sub-scales (attitudes towards law, attitudes towards courts, attitudes towards police, tolerance for law violations, and identification with criminal others), we conducted a hierarchical analysis using Ward’s method to explore and define the number of clusters. We determined the number of clusters using the Elbow method. We then repeated the cluster analysis using a non-hierarchical method with the K-means technique and fixing the number of clusters to three.ResultsThe current sample exhibited considerably higher CSS-M scores than those previously published (mean = 32.0±14.4). The total CSS-M score demonstrated high reliability (alpha = 0.898), and four of the sub-scales exhibited moderate to high reliability (α,Law = 0.741; α,Courts = 0.808; α,Police = 0.762; α,TLV = 0.696). When controlling for age, race, gender, and ACE score, the multiple linear regression model accounted for 8.6% of the variability in total CSS-M score (p < 0.001), though only ACE score and age were significant predictors (β = 0.218, p = 0.001; β = -0.167, p = 0.008, respectively). The cluster analysis produced three clusters. Given that the ICO sub-scale had the lowest Cronbach’s alpha (α = 0.328), we repeated the cluster analysis process with the four other sub-scales, which confirmed the three clusters. An ANOVA with the four sub-scales and total CSS-M score showed that the three clusters could be defined as those with low, medium, and high scores on the scales. Confirming the results from the MLR, an ANOVA of the three clusters with ACE scores (F= 4.49, p = 0.012) and age (F = 3.77, p = 0.024) were both significant.DiscussionThe average total CSS-M score is considerably higher than previous investigations. Both high ACE scores and younger age significantly predicted higher CSS-M scores. Because CSS-M scores have been shown to predict recidivism, it is critical to further understand the foundation of these negative attitudes towards the criminal justice system to prevent the continued over-representation of people with serious mental illness in the criminal justice system.

LA MENTE CRIMINAL Y LA VIOLACIÓN DE DERECHOS HUMANOS

criminal behaviors have always been present in the lives of human being. People learn to live in an increasingly complicated world, in which complications are not proportional to the damage caused by the offender. Since the genesis of humanity, the human being has pretended to find an explanation to criminal acts; however, the play and role that the victim plays has been neglected. In the case of crimes that involve women as a passive subjects of a crime, such as gender crimes, the criminal law has tried to explain the criminal thinking, but without analyzing the role of the victim or the damage caused. The offence causes harm not only to the person who suffers but the surrounding environment such as parents, children, family, friends and the community itself