Decision making and criminal risk: A neuropsychological examination of self control theory
Incarceration rates have been rapidly climbing during the last several years. Correctional officials devote substantial resources to predicting which prisoners are at risk for institutional misconduct and recidivism upon release. Existing risk prediction methods are costly and lack precision, thus creating a need for improved methods. In this project, the relationship between self control, decision making, and criminal risk were examined. Poor decision making and poor self control both have, at their core, a failure to consider future consequences in the presence of immediate rewards. A failure to consider consequences is reminiscent of criminal behavior. Therefore, poor decision making and a lack of self control were hypothesized to account for increased criminal risk. Incarcerated felons at the Iowa Medical and Classification Center (N = 96) participated in this project. Offenders completed a demographic questionnaire, the Iowa Gambling Task, and the Self Control Scale (SCS). Additionally, test scores from the MMPI-2, the Revised Beta IQ test, the Test of Adult Basic Education (TABE), the Level of Service inventory-Revised (LSI-R), the Custody Classification Review (CCR), and background information were gathered from institutional records. The CCR and LSI-R were used as indices of criminal risk. Decision-making and self-control did not explain variance in criminal risk beyond existing measures used at IMCC (i.e., MMPI-2, TABE, Beta). Post-hoc analyses revealed that (1) offenders performed worse on the Gambling Task than Bechara's normative sample, (2) high self-control participants performed better on the Gambling Task than low self-control participants, and (3) when analyzed without other demographic and assessment variables, the Gambling Task and SCS explained significant variance in LSI-R scores. It is evident through these analyses that the relationship between decision making, self control, and criminal risk is complex. Consequently, accurate criminal risk assessment may be benefited by employing a more comprehensive approach that accounts not only for environmental variables, but also for other variables such as psychological and neuropsychological functioning. Specifically, with regard to this study, the assessment of decision making and self control may improve upon current methods in predicting institutional misconduct and recidivism. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2007 APA, all rights reserved)
https://www.upress.umn.edu/test-division/bibliography/2000-2009/2005/kanz_decision_2005
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Jason E Kanz
(2005)
Decision making and criminal risk: A neuropsychological examination of self control theory
PhD thesis.