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CORRELATES OF OFFENSE SEVERITY AND RECIDIVISM PROBABILITY IN A CANADIAN SAMPLE

NCJ Number
64208
Journal
Journal of Clinical Psychology Volume: 35 Issue: 4 Dated: (OCTOBER 1979) Pages: 897-907
Author(s)
N MANDELZYS
Date Published
1979
Length
11 pages
Annotation
SEVERITY OF MOST RECENT OFFENSES AND RECIDIVISM PROBABILITY IS RELATED TO A NUMBER OF SOCIAL BACKGROUND AND PSYCHOMETRIC VARIABLES IN A SAMPLE OF INMATES IMPRISONED IN CANADA.
Abstract
DATA WERE COLLECTED FROM THE RECORDS OR ROUTINE ADMISSION INTERVIEWS OF 457 PRISONERS ADMITTED TO A PSYCHIATRIC HOSPITAL PRISON. DATA INCLUDED THE MOST RECENT OFFENSE, SCORES FROM A RECIDIVISM PREDICTOR, INTELLIGENCE QUOTIENT TEST PSYCHOMETRIC INFORMATION AND SOCIAL BACKGROUND INFORMATION. OFFENDERS WERE DIVIDED INTO FIVE GROUPS BY OFFENSE TYPE. MULTIPLE REGRESSION STUDIES INDICATE FOR THE GROUP AS A WHOLE THAT OFFENSE SEVERITY AND RECIDIVISM PROBABILITY ARE MOST OFTEN RELATED TO BACKGROUND VARIABLES, ESPECIALLY TOTAL NUMBER OF ARRESTS AND FIRST OFFENSE DATA (I.E., AGE, TYPE OF OFFENSE, SENTENCE). HOWEVER, OFFENSE SEVERITY BEARS NO SIGNIFICANT RELATIONSHIP TO PSYCHOMETRIC VARIABLES. PREVIOUS STUDIES SUGGESTING THAT RECIDIVISM PROBABILITY IS ASSOCIATED WITH PSYCHOLOGICAL ABNORMALITY ARE CORROBORATED. HOWEVER, THE DEGREE OF ABNORMALITY CANNOT GENERALLY BE RELATED TO OFFENSE SEVERITY. RESULTS OF BETWEEN- AND WITHIN-GROUP ANALYSES DEMONSTRATE THAT RESEARCHERS CANNOT CONSIDER THEIR SUBJECTS AS A WHOLE IN UNDERSTANDING OFFENSE AND RECIDIVIST BEHAVIOR BECAUSE PRISONERS ARE NOT HOMOGENEOUS. ADDITIONALLY, SPECIFIC BACKGROUND VARIABLES ARE RELATED TO RECIDIVISM PROBABILITY IN SOME GROUPS MORE THAN OTHERS. FURTHER, INTERRELATIONSHIPS OF PSYCHOMETRIC WITH OTHER VARIABLES ARE COMPLEX FOR ALL GROUPS. RECOMMENDATIONS FOR FUTURE RESEARCH, FOOTNOTES, TABULAR INFORMATION, AND REFERENCES ARE INCLUDED. (PAP)