This study aims to investigate the potential moderating effect of the average annual ambient temperature in 24 European countries on the relationship between criminal thinking…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to investigate the potential moderating effect of the average annual ambient temperature in 24 European countries on the relationship between criminal thinking (reactive vs proactive) and juvenile offending (violent vs property).
Design/methodology/approach
The average annual ambient temperatures found in 24 European countries were correlated with measures of reactive vs proactive criminal thinking and violent vs property offending in 56,518 students (50.4% female) from the second International Self-Reported Delinquency Study. These data were analyzed using a multilevel model comprising three Level 1 (student) predictors – age, sex and family structure – one Level 2 (country) predictor – ambient temperature – and two outcome measures – a reactive: proactive criminal thinking index (RPI) and a violent: property offending index (VPI).
Findings
The RPI and VPI correlated significantly with the Level 1 predictors, and the annual ambient temperatures from these 24 countries (Level 2 predictor) correlated positively with RPI and VPI and moderated the effect of reactive criminal thinking (RCT) on violent offending.
Practical implications
These findings indicate that ambient temperature correlates with violent/aggressive offending after the effects of property/non-aggressive offending have been controlled and suggest that ambient temperature may moderate the relationship between RCT and violent offending by affecting the decision-making process.
Originality/value
The contribution made by this study to the literature is that it illustrates how a macro-level influence in the form of average annual temperature can impact on micro-level processes in the form of criminal thinking and violent behavior.
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The purpose of this study was to determine whether core constructs from the control (impulsivity resulting from poor parental discipline leads to crime) and moral (weak moral…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study was to determine whether core constructs from the control (impulsivity resulting from poor parental discipline leads to crime) and moral (weak moral values lead to crime) models of criminal lifestyle development were capable of predicting crime continuance in early-to-mid adolescent youth.
Design/methodology/approach
Weak parental supervision and lack of remorse for antisocial conduct on the part of the child were correlated with subsequent delinquency in 1,850 (1,685 males, 165 females) early-to-mid adolescent delinquents. Analyses were based exclusively on data extracted from New York City probation, family court and police files.
Findings
Results from a negative binomial regression analysis revealed that both weak parental supervision and lack of remorse for antisocial conduct predicted subsequent delinquency over a period of six months, net the effects of age, sex, ethnicity, prior delinquency, sibling delinquency, negative peer associations, substance use and a felony charge.
Research limitations/implications
These findings provide preliminary support for the control (low parental supervision) and moral (lack of remorse) models of criminal lifestyle development.
Practical implications
Weak parental supervision and failure to express remorse for antisocial actions increased risk of future delinquency by 19% and 29%, respectively. Teaching parents to be more effective disciplinarians and encouraging the development of moral values in youthful offenders may be of value in promoting desistance to crime in early juvenile offenders.
Originality/value
The importance of these results is that they reinforce prior findings obtained using self-report measures with data collected from official records.
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The purpose of this study was to determine whether cognitive factors mediate the relationship between parental knowledge/support and delinquency escalation.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study was to determine whether cognitive factors mediate the relationship between parental knowledge/support and delinquency escalation.
Design/methodology/approach
Using data from early adolescent youth enrolled in the Gang Resistance Education and Training (GREAT) study, two analyses were performed. The first analysis cross-lagged parental knowledge and cognitive impulsivity as predictors of delinquency escalation and the second analysis cross-lagged parental support and moral neutralization as predictors of delinquency escalation.
Findings
In both analyses, the indirect effect of a change in parenting on delinquency escalation via a change in cognition attained significance, whereas the indirect effect of a change in cognition on delinquency escalation via a change in parenting did not. In neither case did the direct effect of parenting on delinquency achieve significance.
Research limitations/implications
This study was limited, however, by exclusive reliance on self-report measures to assess all variables in this study and the use of explicit rather than implicit measures of cognitive impulsivity and moral neutralization.
Practical implications
The practical implications of these results are that they point to ways in which improved parenting can lead to crime deceleration; reduced cognitive impulsivity and moral neutralization can lead to crime deceleration.
Social implications
These results imply that social variables like parental knowledge and support stimulate a change in cognition as part of the process by which delinquency escalates during early adolescence.
Originality/value
The unique contribution this study makes to the field is that it highlights the role antisocial cognition plays in mediating between social factors and delinquency as part of the crime acceleration process that often occurs in early adolescence.
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Elizabeth Spruin, Tara Dunleavy, Chloe Mitchell and Belinda Siesmaa
This study aims to evaluate the utility and reliability of the Psychological Inventory of Criminal Thinking Styles (PICTS) to investigate the criminal cognitions of mentally…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to evaluate the utility and reliability of the Psychological Inventory of Criminal Thinking Styles (PICTS) to investigate the criminal cognitions of mentally disordered offenders (MDOs) from the UK.
Design/methodology/approach
The reliability and validity of the PICTS scales were investigated within an MDO sample from the UK (N = 45) and compared to PICTS data from the USA and general offenders in the UK.
Findings
The findings showed that the PICTS functioned in a similar way when used in MDO and non-MDO populations, indicating that from a psychometric perspective, the PICTS scales produce consistent results across both populations. Evidence is further provided to indicate that MDOs from the UK endorse criminal cognitions at a similar level to those in the USA and at a significantly higher level than general UK offenders.
Practical implications
The implications and insight that these findings provide into the criminal cognitions of MDOs are discussed, with specific focus on the significant difference between general offenders and offenders with serious mental illness.
Originality/value
To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is the first to use the PICTS with MDOs in the UK, comparing the criminal thinking styles of MDOs and non-MDOs.
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The purpose of this paper is to illustrate how first-time offenders and habitual criminals, while displaying wide differences in offense frequency, appear to follow a similar…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to illustrate how first-time offenders and habitual criminals, while displaying wide differences in offense frequency, appear to follow a similar pattern in committing crime.
Design/methodology/approach
A conceptual approach is adopted in this paper.
Findings
It is argued that criminal thinking is the common denominator in both patterns, the difference being that habitual criminals have a higher resting level of proactive and reactive criminal thinking than first-time offenders. With an earlier age of onset, the habitual criminal may be more impulsive and reactive than first-time offenders, which partially explains why most low-rate offenders are not identified until adulthood.
Practical implications
Because actual and perceived deterrents to crime correlate weakly, if at all, it is recommended that perceived environmental events and criminal thinking be the primary targets of prevention and intervention programs.
Social implications
Environmental stimuli, such as events that produce general strain, increase opportunities for crime, reinforce criminal associations, irritate the individual and interfere with the deterrent effect of perceived certainty, can both augment and interact with criminal thinking to increase the likelihood of a criminal act in both first-time offenders and habitual criminals.
Originality/value
The unique aspect of this paper is that it illustrates that certain features of crime and criminality are found across offending levels, whereas other features are more specific to a particular level.
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The Register of Current Research in the field of Physical Distribution Management has been compiled from the response to a request for such information made to Universities in 23…
Abstract
The Register of Current Research in the field of Physical Distribution Management has been compiled from the response to a request for such information made to Universities in 23 countries throughout the world. The last register was published in 1972 in this journal.
Morten Hesse and Birgitte Thylstrup
This article presents the Impulsive Lifestyle Counselling program, a time-limited psychoeducational approach to increasing patient awareness of antisocial personality disorder and…
Abstract
Purpose
This article presents the Impulsive Lifestyle Counselling program, a time-limited psychoeducational approach to increasing patient awareness of antisocial personality disorder and its consequences.
Design/methodology/approach
This article describes the ILC program, a program developed as an add-on to treatment for substance use disorders, gives examples of issues and patient-counsellor interactions in the ILC sessions.
Findings
During the ILC sessions the patients engaged with the counsellors in diverse ways, reflecting the varying levels of psychopathology and overall functioning and barriers and incentive for lifestyle changes.
Originality/value
Patients with substance use disorder and comorbid antisocial personality disorder can receive better care with brief counselling that focuses on antisocial behavior and thinking. More diverse evidence-based treatments are needed for this disorder.
The purpose of this paper is to clarify the relationship between gang affiliation and criminal thinking.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to clarify the relationship between gang affiliation and criminal thinking.
Design/methodology/approach
A sample of 1,354 youth (1,170 males, 184 females) from the Pathways to Desistance Study served as participants in this study, and a causal mediation path analysis was performed on proactive and reactive criminal thinking, gang affiliation and subsequent offending.
Findings
Using three waves of data, it was determined that the pathway running from reactive criminal thinking to gang affiliation to proactive criminal thinking was significant, whereas the pathway running from proactive criminal thinking to gang affiliation to reactive criminal thinking was not. A four-wave model, in which violent and income offending were appended to the three-wave model, disclosed similar results.
Practical implications
Two separate targets for intervention with youth at risk for gang involvement: proactive and reactive criminal thinking. The impulsive, irresponsible, reckless and disinhibited nature of reactive criminal thinking may best be managed with a secondary prevention approach and cognitive-behavioral skills training; the planned, cold, calculating and amoral nature of proactive criminal thinking may best be managed with a tertiary prevention approach and moral retraining. Trauma therapy may be of assistance to youth who have been victimized over the course of their gang experience.
Originality/value
These findings reveal evidence of a gang selection effect that is independent of the well-documented peer selection effect, in which reactive criminal thinking led to gang affiliation in youthful offenders, particularly non-White offenders, and a gang influence effect, independent of the frequently observed peer selection effect, in which gang affiliation contributed to a rise in proactive criminal thinking.
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Glenn D. Walters and Scott A. Duncan
The purpose of this paper is to explore the relationship between differences in performance and verbal intelligence quotients (PIQ and VIQ) and the four facet scores from the…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to explore the relationship between differences in performance and verbal intelligence quotients (PIQ and VIQ) and the four facet scores from the Psychopathy Checklist–Revised (PCL–R) (Hare, 2003).
Design/methodology/approach
Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS) and PCL–R facet scores provided by 181 male federal inmates as part of a forensic evaluation were analyzed with multiple regression, paired t-tests, and receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves.
Findings
Of the four PCL–R facet scores, only elevations on Facet 4 (antisocial) produced a significant WAIS-Revised (Wechsler, 1981) PIQ over VIQ (PIQ>VIQ) effect. In addition, only Facet 4 achieved significant ROC accuracy and correlated with the PIQ>VIQ discrepancy after other potentially important variables were controlled. In a follow-up study of 46 male inmates, Facet 4 correlated negatively with the Verbal Comprehension and Working Memory indices of the WAIS–Third Edition (Wechsler, 1997) and accurately classified a significant portion of Perceptual Organization Index (POI)>WMI cases but not a significant portion of POI>VCI cases.
Practical implications
Verbal comprehension and executive function deficits are examined as possible explanations for the relationships observed in this study.
Originality/value
These results have potentially important implications for forensic assessment in that they suggest that only certain specific features of the psychopathy construct are related to the well-known PIQ>VIQ discrepancy.