The Measurement of Criminal Dangerousness as a Personality Construct: Further Validation of a Research Index

The validity of an index measuring criminal dangerousness was further evaluated by determining whether it could discriminate among prisoners committing violent crimes at three levels of severity. The index score was a multiplicative product of an antisocially score and an IQ score, with high antisocially and low IQ reflecting greater dangerousness. Comparison of index scores for men committing murder (most severe); robbery and rape (intermediate severity); and assault, child molestation, and manslaughter (least severe); revealed a significant monotonic increase in dangerousness scores as increasingly severe crimes were considered. Several recommendations for the measurement of criminal dangerousness were offered.     

The measurement of criminal dangerousness as a personality construct: further validation of a research index

The validity of an index measuring criminal dangerousness was further evaluated by determining whether it could discriminate among prisoners committing violent crimes at three levels of severity. The index score was a multiplicative product of an antisocially score and an IQ score, with high antisocially and low IQ reflecting greater dangerousness. Comparison of index scores for men committing murder (most severe); robbery and rape (intermediate severity); and assault, child molestation, and manslaughter (least severe) revealed a significant monotonic increase in dangerousness scores as increasingly severe crimes were considered. Several recommendations for the measurement of criminal dangerousness were offered.     

Causal and Moral Responsibility of Victims of Rape and Robbery

Four experimental studies of attribution in a criminal situation used a 2⁴ ANOVA design with three common independent variables, namely, type of crime, time of crime, and victim's prior experience of crime, all three manipulated through a passage describing an incident of crime involving a male criminal and a female victim, and one common dependent measure which was length of imprisonment recommended for the criminal. The fourth independent variable was subject's sex in the first two experiments and instructionally manipulated female subject's involvement (objective or identifying female subject) in the last two experiments. The second dependent measure was fault attributed to the victim in the first and third experiments and perceived likelihood of crime in the second and fourth experiments. The subjects were undergraduate students of the University of Bombay, 15 per cell in each experiment. Female subjects were more punitive toward the criminal than male subjects, especially in the case of rape, and the rapist received a longer sentence than the robber, especially from female subjects. Identifying female subjects tended to recommend a longer sentence than objective female subjects. Female subjects attributed less fault to the victim and perceived greater likelihood of crime than male subjects and identifying female subjects attributed somewhat less fault to the victim than did objective female subjects. The robbery victim was attributed more fault than the rape victim. Whereas previous experience of similar victimization increased attributed victim's fault, a late hour enhanced both attributed victim's fault and perceived likelihood of crime. These findings are discussed with respect to a theoretical distinction between causal and moral responsibility as represented by the likellhood and fault measures, respectively.     

PROGRAM EVALUATION RESEARCH: AN EXPERIMENTAL COST-EFFECTIVENESS ANALYSIS OF AN ARMED ROBBERY INTERVENTION PROGRAM

An armed robbery alarm system was implemented in 48 different stores in two separate geographical areas for 6 months and 12 months, respectively. The alarms were placed in the two separate areas at different times and all alarms were eventually removed. Thus, multiple baseline and reversal strategies were used to evaluate program impact. A device planted in a cash drawer was triggered whenever “bait” money was removed from the drawer sending an alarm signal directly to police cars and headquarters. Onscene apprehensions of armed robbers within target stores were greatly increased even though the armed robbery systems did not deter robbery incidents nor influence the court disposition of the cases. There was also no crime deterrence, crime displacement, or increased apprehensions in either the immediate neighborhoods of target stores or on a city-wide basis. The cost effectiveness of the program was calculated to be poor even though the program is being maintained because of the absence of an alternative robbery apprehension technology.     

Public attitudes about the culpability and punishment of young offenders

Opinions of 789 community adults were individually assessed, using a video-clip of an actual armed robbery and other measures, to determine whether attitudes toward the culpability and appropriate punishment of young offenders were linked to offenders' age, race, and physical appearance. Three major findings emerged: (1) community adults endorse the view that criminal choices of young offenders are influenced by their developmental immaturity and attribute more responsibility for the criminal act as the actor gets older; (2) the public has a relatively strong preference for differential treatment of juvenile and adult offenders; and (3) attitudes about culpability and punishment are not influenced by the culprit's race, physical maturity, or appearance of "toughness." Indications that punitive public opinion toward youth crime may be changing and implications for juvenile justice policy of the study's findings are discussed.     

Neurocognitive deficits related to poor decision making in people behind bars

Using a novel quantitative model of repeated choice behavior, we investigated the cognitive processes of criminal offenders incarcerated for various crimes. Eighty-one criminals, including violent offenders, drug and sex offenders, drivers operating a vehicle while impaired, and 18 matched controls were tested. The results were also contrasted with those obtained from neurological patients with focal brain lesions in the orbitofrontal cortex and from drug abusers. Participants performed the computerized version of the Iowa gambling task (Bechara, Damasio, Damasio, & Anderson, 1994), and the results were decomposed into specific component processes, using the expectancy valence model (Busemeyer & Stout, 2002). The findings indicated that whereas all the criminal groups tended to select disadvantageously, the cognitive profiles exhibited by different groups were considerably different. Certain subpopulations--most significantly, drug and sex offenders--overweighted potential gains as compared with losses, similar to chronic cocaine abusers. In contrast, assault/murder criminals tended to make less consistent choices and to focus on immediate outcomes and, in these respects, weremore similar to patients with orbitofrontal damage. The present cognitive model provides a novel way for building a bridge between cognitive neuroscience and complex human behaviors.     

Effects of Native American Race, Intoxication, and Crime Severity on Judgments of Guilt

The effects of Native American race, crime severity, and intoxication on 293 college students' judgments of guilt were investigated. Participants read vignettes of a robbery or a robbery resulting in murder committed by a male defendant with a Native American or a White European surname. The defendant was described as highly intoxicated in half of the conditions. A 2 × 2 × 2 ANOVA revealed a marginally significant 3-way interaction. In the robbery–murder condition, the intoxicated Native American defendant was judged as guiltier than the Native American defendant with no intoxication information. We labeled this a stereotypical drunken-Indian bias. The results suggested that judgments given by lower and higher prejudiced participants canceled each other out.     

Differences that suggest female investment in,and male distance from,children

A factorial between subjects experiment was conducted with sex of respondent, level of success, sex of stimulus parent, and sex of stimulus child as the independent variables. Two hundred seventy-two undergraduates without parenting experience constituted the sample. The attributions made to explain parenting success/failure and the ratings made both of the child and the parent on the same 60 personality item were the dependent variables. Female respondents were not only especially success-oriented, but evidenced a view of parenting emphasizing deliberation and skill, whereas their male counterparts were comparatively more inclined to explain failure in terms of it being the child's fault and to overstate a child's meanness.This investigation was completed on the first author's NIMH traineeship (5 T01 MH-14473) for doctoral study. The authors are appreciative of the contributions of Professors Donn Byrne, Kay Deaux, and William Martin to the development of this study.     

Psychopathy and aggressive behaviour among Nigerian male prison inmates: The moderating role of substance abuse

This study investigated the moderating role of substance abuse in the relationship between psychopathy and aggression among male prison inmates. Two hundred and sixty-seven male prison inmates from the Nigerian Prison Services were participants. The inmates were incarcerated for armed robbery (27.3%), theft (31.1%), murder (12.8%), rape/assault/child abuse (19.1%), burglary/arson (5.6%) and kidnapping (1.5%) in Enugu prisons, Nigeria. Their mean age was 28.32; SD = 5.53. Their length of time in prison ranges from 1 to 12 years, with a mean of 3.38 years. Participants responded to self-reported measures of aggression, psychopathy, and drug abuse. The result of the moderated regression analysis indicated substance abuse to moderate the relationship between primary psychopathy and verbal aggression, and between secondary psychopathy and hostility. The study findings underscore the importance of psychological intervention aimed at addressing aggression among prison inmates with histories of substance abuse and psychopathy.     

male self-control and sexual aggression

This study examines judgments of male self-control regarding sexual aggression in dating situations. A survey was conducted using vignettes that described situations where a hypothetical man attempts to have intercourse with his female date, she resists, and he considers various ways of overcoming her resistance. Survey respondents judged these vignettes. The goals of the study were to estimate the prevalence of beliefs about low male self-control, and to examine how contextual information affects these assessments. Contrary to expectations derived from the literature, the large majority of respondents attributed high levels of self-control to men across a wide range of scenarios. As expected, the man's alcohol intoxication reduced perceived control. Against expectations, consensual foreplay and prior sex did not affect ratings. Implications for social learning and rational choice theories of sexual aggression are discussed, with particular emphasis on Ajzen's (1988) theory of planned behavior.     

Degree of Detail of Eyewitness Testimony and Mock Juror Judgments1

The influence of the degree of detail of eyewitness testimony on two sides of a court case was investigated in two experiments. In the first experiment subject-jurors read a civil court case involving an automobile-pedestrian accident. The plaintiff and the defendant presented conflicting eyewitness accounts. Judgments of the relative credibility of the eyewitnesses on each side and the percentage of negligence of the parties were influenced by the relative degree of detail of the eyewitness testimony on each side. In the second experiment subject-jurors read a criminal court case involving robbery and murder. The prosecution and defense presented conflicting eyewitness accounts. The degree of detail of the prosecution eyewitness testimony influenced judgments of guilt and judgments of the credibility of the eyewitnesses. An examination of the reasons for verdicts and credibility judgments revealed that some subjects inferred that an eyewitness who gave testimony with a greater degree of detail had a better memory for the trivial details and the culprit than an eyewitness who gave testimony with a lesser degree of detail. Implications of these results for the legal system are discussed.     

Adult interpretations of child behavior

This study extends an earlier study (Meyer & Sobieszek, 1972) of the effects of the sex of a child on adult interpretations of its behavior. Videotapes of two 17-month-old children were shown to a sample of 69 adults, who were asked to rate each child's behavior on a number of sex-linked adjectives. Half of the time the sex of the child was wrongly misdescribed. Results from the present study support most findings of the earlier research. Female subjects, especially those reporting high contact with children, described children as possessing fewer stereotypical characteristics of their attributed sex than did male subjects. In addition, males and females attributed more of any qualities to same-sex children and also liked same-sex children more. Males also are more confident in rating same-sex children, while females are somewhat likelier to express more confidence in their ratings of male children.A version of this article was presented at the annual meeting of the Canadian Sociology and Anthropology Association, Toronto, 1974.     

On the Edge of Reason? Armed Robbery,Affective Transgression,and Bounded Rationality

Based on interviews with convicted armed robbers, this article presents their self-reported motivations. Aside from anticipated monetary reward, some of the distinctive foreground qualities of armed robbery, including hedonic thrills, fear arousal and control are revealed. The concept of “crime as defibrillation” is introduced to account for the sensory surge craved by these men to counter a life of systematic structural exclusion, dysphoria, and lack of prospect. Suffering from sensory asystole, it is only the most extreme and risky behavior, in the form of serious violent crime, that can revive a life otherwise flatlining and out of control.     

The preference to work for a man or a woman: A matter of sex and gender?

A survey of 455 individuals sampled from two populations that varied in age, educational level, and work experience posed a question asked in Gallup polls over six decades: “If you were taking a new job and had your choice of a boss, would you prefer to work for a man or a woman?” Respondents could state that they would prefer a male boss, prefer a female boss, or had no preference. As expected from theory and Gallup results, respondents who had a preference preferred to work for a man more than a woman, although a majority expressed “no preference.” When they expressed a preference, women preferred to work for a female boss over a male boss more than men did, whereas men preferred to work for a male boss over a female boss more than women did. Sex-typed (i.e., masculine or feminine) respondents in gender identity exhibited a greater preference to work for a boss of a particular sex over having no preference than non-sex-typed respondents. Further, feminine respondents preferred to work for a female boss over a male boss more than masculine respondents did, whereas masculine respondents preferred to work for a male boss over a female boss more than feminine respondents did. Overall, these results suggest that the preference to work for a man or a woman is a matter of both sex and gender. Implications for job applicants' vocational decisions and how female leaders fare in the workplace are discussed.     

Motivations for gun possession and carrying among serious juvenile offenders

Though the prevalence of gun possession and carrying among juveniles is now fairly well documented (at least among non-serious offenders), little research has examined juveniles' reasons for possessing and carrying guns beyond noting that youth who report robbery and assaultive behavior have higher rates of gun and other weapon possession than do non-violent youth. The present study examines the question of motivation behind gun possession and carrying by criminally-inclined youths through analysis of survey data collected from juveniles incarcerated in maximum security reformatories. The findings support the popular fear that juvenile offenders are heavily involved in gun-related crime, though the same findings point to multiple needs and uses for guns. Using a number of measures—reasons for carrying guns, for using them during the commission of crimes, for purchasing them, etc.—it appears that the primary reason for gun possession and carrying is the juvenile's perception of the need to be armed for protection. This is the case even among those who were involved in such predatory crimes as armed robbery prior to incarceration. Thus, legislative attempts to dissuade youth from obtaining guns to commit crimes are likely misplaced, since the guns eventually used in crime are usually obtained for protective purposes. Only when firearms are perceived as no longer needed can we expect a serious drop in gun-related offenses among youth.     

Effects of defendant age on severity of punishment for different crimes

After reading a murder or theft vignette in which the perpetrator was a 20-, 40-, or 60-year-old man, 95 undergraduates gave sentence and parole recommendations. Punishment was harsher for the murder than for the theft. For murder, participants treated the 20- and 60-year-old men less harshly than the 40-year-old man, which confirms previous archival findings. However, this inverted U-shaped function occurred for murder only. The authors discussed the results in the context of the just-desert and utilitarian rationales that guide sentencing and gave suggestions for future research.     

Consistency of assertive, aggressive, and submissive behavior for children

The interpersonal behavior of 50 third- through fifth-grade children was assessed over an 8-month period in a wide variety of naturally occurring school activities. The consistency of the children's behavior was found to vary as a function of the child's sex, the class of behavior examined, and the similarity/dissimilarity of the contexts in which the behaviors occurred. Boys demonstrated remarkable consistency in their aggressive expression; 46 of 105 intercorrelations for the aggressiveness dimensions were statistically significant. In general, the consistency of assertive behavior for both boys and girls was unexpectedly high.