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Delinquent and Criminal Behavior as Assessed by the Revised Psychological Inventory

NCJ Number
139856
Journal
Journal of Clinical Psychology Volume: 48 Issue: 3 Dated: (May 1992) Pages: 298-308
Author(s)
H G Gough; P Bradley
Date Published
1992
Length
11 pages
Annotation
To obtain validation, the revised California Psychological Inventory (CPI) was studied in samples of 272 delinquent or criminal men and 1,088 controls and 400 delinquent or criminal women and 2,266 controls, which provided delinquency base rates of 20 percent for men and 15 percent for women.
Abstract
Significant mean differences were found on 25 of the 27 scales evaluated for men and 26 scales for women. Socialization emerged as the best differentiator with point-biserial correlations of .54 for men and .58 for women. The new CPI theoretical model of personality structure also revealed significant differences: those in the Gamma and Delta lifestyle categories manifested higher delinquency rates than those in the Alpha and Beta. For all four lifestyles, low levels of ego integration were associated with greater incidence of delinquency. Study findings indicate that the scales of the revised CPI differentiate between delinquents and nondelinquents of both sexes to about the same degree as the scales in the original version. 4 figures, 1 table, and 33 references