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Inmate misconduct is a focal concern among those who live and work in prisons, and is committed primarily by a few offenders with discernable backgrounds. The current study examines the most prolific rule violators (the top 1 and 10%) among a large sample of inmates housed across Ohio correctional facilities. We focus on the characteristics that predict membership into these categories and whether differences in their rates of occurrence exist between males and females. Findings show more similarities than differences between groups. Implication for theory and practice are discussed, as well as suggestions for future research.

Everyday evil is seen in a broad range of scenarios of intended behaviors that are often not violations of criminal law, but nevertheless cause significant and enduring personal and emotional harm. For this reason, the manifestations of everyday evil have pressing psychiatric import. Here, we propose the Welner Inventory of Everyday Extreme and Outrageous (WIEEO) for use as a screening inventory in clinical settings. The WIEEO contains 14 items within four categories: Physical and Emotional Damage, Exploitation, Extending Damage, and Extinguishing Goodness. Five items of "Physical and Emotional Damage" account for enduring life impact from said damage, and material effects that amplify emotional impact as well. Three items of "Exploitation" highlight the significance of not merely the actor's exploitation itself, but also the defenseless vulnerability of the victim. Four items that comprise the "Extending Suffering" category lengthen the impact, involve unusual dimensions, reflect creative social deviance in intent, or extend to additional parties. The two items of "Extinguishing Goodness" focus on the impact of decaying the otherwise prosocial or benevolent character of another and spawning everyday outrageousness in someone who would not have otherwise acted as such. These items have assumed relevance to the WIEEO through research and clinical settings that reveal their significant impact and psychological morbidity. The WIEEO serves as a marker for behaviors that warrant closer clinical attention to intervene, treat and detoxify such situations and the motivations of such malignant behavior before it further traumatizes or damages others.

This study examines patterns of violent institutional misconduct among a cohort of serious juvenile offenders who were incarcerated in state-level juvenile correctional facilities and then state adult prison institutions. Within the cohort, one group of offenders was immediately transferred to the adult prison system following their incarceration in a juvenile correctional facility. The other portion of the cohort was first released to the community, and then later incarcerated in adult prisons. Results of the analysis indicate that being a younger prison inmate with a history of childhood trauma and considered a high-rate violent institutional misconduct perpetrator as a juvenile ward were significant predictors of engaging in violent misconduct in adult prisons. Implications for theory, research, and practice are discussed.

Inmate politics in prisons has been well chronicled. Yet, little is known about the role of inmate politics in county jails. Utilizing data from a natural experiment and complied through longitudinal case study methods, this study observed the dynamic socio-political concepts of the county jail inmate environment that followed California's 2011 sentencing reform. Identifying those aspects of the jail inmate political system that shifted – enhancements in the role of race relations among inmates, an expansion of the inmate economy, and emergence of utilitarian violence – also permits a clearer understanding of the jail inmate political system.

Although research on the dark figure of delinquency has produced valuable quantitative estimates of its size, prior research is mechanistic and atheoretical about the conceptual underpinnings of the crimes that go undetected by the juvenile justice system. Drawing on data from 253 adjudicated youth in residential placements in the Midwestern United States, the current study found that youth self-reported over 25 delinquent offenses for every one police contact. The dark figure of delinquency has a wide distribution with some youth reporting upwards of 290 delinquent offenses per police contact or arrest. Youth who exhibited more psychopathic features, who displayed temperamental profiles characterized by low effortful control and high negative emotionality, males, and those who were older had larger dark figures of delinquency. Findings provide support for general criminological theories that invoke psychopathy or temperament as important individual-level drivers of delinquent conduct, much of which never results in juvenile justice system intervention and thus never achieves legal resolution.

Psychopathy and low self-control are useful constructs for understanding antisociality/criminality. The triarchic model of psychopathy in particular is a recent and promising conceptualisation, composed of boldness, disinhibition, and meanness - three personality traits that have never been studied in tandem with low self-control.To test relationships between the triarchic personality traits of boldness, disinhibition and meanness and low self-control with delinquent or antisocial acts.In a cross-sectional, self-report study a schools' cohort of 14- to 18-year-olds (Mean 15.91 years, SD = 0.99 years) was recruited from regions in South Portugal and Lisbon, representative of the general population of this age in sex distribution and education. After parental consent, teenage volunteers in small groups completed psychopathy and self-control self-rating scales and then a questionnaire about their criminal or delinquent activities, all on one single occasion and in confidence from school staff or parents. Path analysis was used to test relationships.567 young people, 256 (45%) of them girls, completed all ratings, 89% of those invited to do so. Low self-control had the strongest relationship with antisocial/criminal acts, followed by the disinhibition or meanness traits of the triarchic psychopathy construct. The boldness trait of the triarchic psychopathy construct had the weakest relationship.Our findings suggest that the most effective targets for intervention to prevent or limit antisocial behaviours by young people are likely to be self-control and disinhibition. Behavioural interventions that improve social skills and verbal problem-solving that encourage listening and waiting in response to environmental stimuli are likely to effect reduction of impulsive and aggressive reactions to others and so reduce conduct problems. Since disinhibition and self-control are such overlapping constructs, improvements in one area will generally facilitate improvements in the other area.

The present study investigates whether self-reported psychopathic traits moderate the relationships between delinquent career features (i.e., age of first detention in a juvenile detention center, crime frequency, crime diversity, crime charges, and Conduct Disorder) and 1-year general delinquency and violent delinquency recidivism outcomes. The sample was composed of male youth (N = 214, M = 16.4 years, SD = 1.3 years) originating from the juvenile detention centers managed by the Ministry of Justice of Portugal. Results mostly suggest that neither the Antisocial Process Screening Device––Self-Report total score nor its Callous-Unemotional, Impulsivity, and Narcissism factor scores moderate the relationships between the delinquent career variables and general and violent delinquency recidivism outcomes. The notable exception was the interaction between crime frequency and callous-unemotional traits in predicting general recidivism. The current findings question the relevance of self-reported psychopathic traits as moderators of recidivism among juveniles despite the general association between psychopathy and conduct problems among youth info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion

The Dark Triad composed of psychopathy, Machiavellianism, and narcissism, and also self-control are consistently related to antisocial and criminal externalizing outcomes. In the present study, we examined whether self-control mediates the relationships between the Dark Triad and delinquency, conduct disorder, and crime seriousness outcomes. The sample consisted of 567 adolescents (M = 15.91 years, SD = 0.99 years, range = 14– 18 years) from Portugal. Self-control mediated the association between psychopathy and Machiavellianism (but not narcissism) and self-reported juvenile delinquency, conduct disorder symptoms, and crime seriousness. One reason antisocial/criminal behaviors are common in those characterized by psychopathy and Machiavellianism relates to their deficits in selfcontrol as suggested by general theories. Within the nomological network of dark traits, narcissism appears to have enduring and unmediated associations with externalizing features and conduct problems. Our findings add to the literature modeling the Dark Triad along with self-control to elucidate its contributions to antisocial/criminal outcomes in youth. Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia - FCT info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion

The Weinberger Adjustment Inventory-Short Form (WAI-SF) is a multidimensional measure of behavioral adjustment frequently used with forensic, clinical, and community populations. However, no previous studies have examined the WAI-SF from a more modern psychometric perspective including second-order models, measurement invariance and a better estimation of reliability. The current sample is composed of female and male young adults (N = 610, M = 21.33 years, SD = 3.09, range = 18-37) from a university context in Portugal. Results indicated that both the four-factor intercorrelated and the four-factor second order models of the WAI-SF Distress and Restraint scales showed good fits. The WAI-SF Distress and Restraint scales were negatively and significantly correlated, and the intercorrelations between the subscales of each scale ranged from moderate to high. The WAI-SF scales and subscales mostly showed adequate to good reliability in terms of McDonald's Omega and the more traditional Cronbach's Alpha. Strong cross-gender measurement invariance was demonstrated, with females scoring significantly higher than males on the Anxiety subscale of the Distress scale, and on the Suppression of Aggression, Impulse Control, Consideration of Others, Responsibility subscales, and Restraint scale. The WAI-SF scales and subscales showed distinctive correlates with other measures (e.g., low self-control, psychopathy) and variables (e.g., delinquency seriousness, substance use). Considering our findings, the use of the WAI-SF is recommended among the Portuguese young adult population and its use in criminological research is encouraged. info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion

The coercive nature of prisons is a longstanding topic of academic inquiry. Although correctional staff help incarcerated individuals adjust to prison by enforcing prison rules and providing guidan...

Purpose Sex offender registration and notification act (SORNA) offenders are a source of scholarly study across the social, behavioral, forensic and legal sciences with the bulk of literature focusing on the legal standing and deterrent value of sexual offender registries. Less research focuses on the offending careers of current SORNA offenders relative to other types of sexual offenders whose current offense is not SORNA. The purpose of the current study is to examine this issue empirically. Design/methodology/approach Using cross-sectional data from a census of male federal offenders who ever perpetrated a sexual offense from the central USA between 2016 and 2020, the current study used t-tests, logistic regression and negative binomial regression to compare current SORNA offenders to other federal correctional clients in terms of their lifetime offending history, sexual violence and compliance on federal supervision. Findings Current SORNA offenders are significantly more severe and versatile in their sexual offending, have more extensive criminal careers and criminal justice system involvement, and exhibit significantly increased odds of revocation on supervised release despite controls for age, race and ethnicity. However, sensitivity models that specified the federal Post-Conviction Risk Assessment reduced the effects of SORNA status to non-significance in all models. Originality/value SORNA offenders are potentially a significant offender group with evidence of both and given their versatile and specialized lifetime offending and noncompliance on federal supervision. However, current SORNA status is rendered spurious once a risk assessment is controlled suggesting more research is needed to evaluate whether sex offender registries posit greater crime control benefit.

Psychopathy is an important forensic mental health construct. Despite this importance, the research base of psychopathy among individuals convicted of capital murder is limited. Archival data were collected from a sample of 636 persons convicted of capital murder and sentenced to death in the State of California. Psychopathy was assessed using the Psychopathy Checklist - Revised (PCL-R) instrument. Data on criminal careers and other behavioral disorders were also extracted. The sample mean PCL-R total score was 23.31 (SD = 9.92) and one-third of individuals in this sample were considered clinically psychopathic with PCL-R total scores of 30 or greater. Factor analytic examination yielded support for four facets: affective, interpersonal, lifestyle, and antisocial. Criterion validity findings revealed positive correlations of psychopathy scores with Antisocial Personality Disorder (ρ = 0.72), Conduct Disorder (ρ = 0.46), sexual sadism (ρ = 0.24), Oppositional Defiant Disorder (ρ = 0.20), ADHD (ρ = 0.15), arrest charges (r = 0.56), prison sentences (r = 0.53), and age of arrest onset (r = -0.57). Individuals convicted of capital murder and sentenced to death reflect heterogeneity in psychopathy with some individuals exhibiting pronounced psychopathic features.

Self-control and psychopathy are correlated with antisocial behaviors among diverse samples, and a spate of recent studies examined their direct associations with criminal outcomes. However, research has largely overlooked mediation effects between psychopathy, self-control and deviant outcomes. The current study examined self-control mediation effects related to the triarchic psychopathy construct and juvenile delinquency, crime seriousness, conduct disorder (CD), and aggression outcomes. The sample consisted of N ¼ 567 (M ¼ 15.91 years, SD ¼ 0.99, range ¼ 14–18 years) southern-European youth from Portugal. Study design was cross-sectional, quantitative and non-experimental. Mediation analysis using path analysis procedures indicated that low self-control mediates the relation between the Boldness, Disinhibition and Meanness factors of the triarchic psychopathy construct and the delinquency, crime seriousness, CD and aggression outcomes. Findings suggest that self-control is a mediator of triarchic psychopathic features and diverse externalizing behavior outcomes, which adds specificity to their interrelationship as general predictors of antisocial behavior. Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia - FCT info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion

Research focusing on the role of adverse childhood experience (ACE) of individuals involved in sexual homicide (SH) is scarce. Theoretical models of SH have postulated a connection between these adverse experiences and the development of internal risk factors. However, such assumptions have never been empirically tested. Therefore, the current research aims to identify how ACEs affect the development of personality disorders and problematic behaviors during adolescence, which constitute internal risk factors for the commission of SH. The sample comes from a database including 613 individuals involved in sexual crimes in Canada among which 60 committed a SH. Bivariate and multiple regression analyses were conducted to identify personality disorders and problematic behaviors during adolescence associated with the presence of ACEs. Next, path analysis was used to identify the direct and indirect relationships between ACEs, internal risk factors, and the commission of SH. Results showed that individuals who experienced ACEs were more likely to develop internal risk factors involved in the commission of SH. Moreover, findings suggest that the impact of these adverse experiences will differ, depending on whether the child has been victim of violence or if he/she has witnessed it.

Although Elijah Anderson’s code of the street thesis has received a great deal of scholarly attention, fewer studies have examined the characteristics associated with its adoption. Existing evidence is supportive of Anderson’s initial observations, however, less is known about the association between personality and emotional characteristics and adopting street code norms. The current study assesses the role of DeLisi and Vaughn’s difficult temperament index in the adoption of the street code among a sample of juvenile justice-involved youth. Results indicated youth with more difficult temperaments, characterized by lower levels of effortful control and higher levels of negative emotionality, were more likely to report greater street code adherence. Implications for juvenile justice policy and future research are discussed.

The notion of criminal character—indicative of an offender unresponsive to rehabilitative efforts, largely unamenable to treatment, primed for recidivism, and committed to a criminal or delinquent lifestyle—has an uneven history in criminology and criminal justice. Despite tangential efforts to apply criminal character considerations to delinquency, we are unaware of any study that has empirically employed the concept of criminal character among justice-system involved youth. Here, we examine the similarities and differences among a large cohort of serious delinquent offenders, some of whom correctional staff assessed as having “criminal character.” Youth with criminal character had more extensive delinquent history, adverse childhood experiences, psychopathology, and institutional and violent misconduct while confined in state juvenile correctional facilities and had significant associations with institutional and violent misconduct despite controls for 29 covariates. However, sensitivity analyses indicated the results were sensitive to specification of the dependent variable (e.g., null associations with dichotomous measures of misconduct) and revealed period effects (e.g., null associations for more recently placed youth). Our models show the potential pitfalls from using administrative measures of criminological and forensic concepts and we offer guidance for measurement development in this area.

The United States Supreme Court decision in Miller v. Alabama highlighted the importance of an individual’s “incorrigibility” and the prospect of “irreparable corruption” when weighing possible life sentencing for juveniles convicted of homicide. In this review, we study research in multiple content areas spanning homicide recidivism, life-course-persistent or career criminality, and psychopathology and incorrigibility that bears relevance to the risk assessment of juvenile homicide offenders. A well-developed corpus of research and scholarship in these domains documents the severe, lifelong behavioral impairments of the most violent delinquents. In contrast to studies of non-offender student samples and behaviors that bear no ecological validity to juvenile homicide, the research covered herein emanates from epidemiological surveys, birth cohort studies, large-scale prospective longitudinal studies, and correctional studies including homicide offenders and appropriate control groups of other serious delinquents. A rich research foundation in the social, behavioral, and forensic science informs relevant, reliable, and valid forensic assessments of future criminal deviance and incorrigibility in juvenile homicide offenders.

Research generally supports the notion that primary and secondary psychopathy variants are relatively distinct, with primary psychopathy reflecting a congenital affective deficit, and secondary psy...

Child pornography possession/receipt offenders are a controversial offender group due to mixed and occasionally divergent evidence about their risk profile, offending history and psychopathology. Using a population of male offenders who ever perpetrated a sexual offense from a federal jurisdiction in the central United States, the current study developed an exploratory post hoc empirical profile of these offenders. The profile has some success in the validation component of our study and showed significant associations with self-reported sexual abuse of child victims ages 3–12 years, but non-significant associations to adolescent and adult victims. It significantly linked to the conceptually expected victim group and the significant statistical effect withstood controls for generally robust indicators of antisocial conduct including antisocial personality disorder, arrest onset, total adverse childhood experiences, age and race. We view the findings as exploratory and encourage additional empirical study of this important offender group.