NCJ Number
90397
Date Published
1981
Length
27 pages
Annotation
The Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI) and the Rorschach test are frequently used in juvenile justice settings to assess current psychological functioning and to predict future behavior. The Exner Comprehensive System, which standardized the Rorschach, made possible a comparison of the Rorschach and the MMPI in an investigation of their relative efficacy in discriminating between violent and nonviolent juvenile offenders.
Abstract
Youth (N=39), referred to a metropolitan juvenile probation department and charged with serious person or property offenses, completed a test battery which included the MMPI and the Rorschach. Few significant differences emerged between violent and nonviolent juvenile offenders on the MMPI and the Rorschach, indicating that both instruments were largely unsuccessful in discriminating between violent and nonviolent juvenile offenders. However, the two measures provided similar data on the nature and degree of psychopathology present in the sample despite their vast divergence in psychometric approaches. The test data imply that the nature and degree of psychopathology present in violent and nonviolent juvenile offenders are similar. (Author/NRB)(Resources in Education (ERIC) abstract)