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The purpose of this paper is to examine the dimensionality, composite reliability, and incremental validity of the Measure of Criminal Social Identity (MCSI) in a sample of Pakistani incarcerated delinquents (n=315) following translation of the measure into Urdu.

Four alternative factor models, with uncorrelated measurement error terms, were specified and tested using confirmatory factor analysis and bifactor modelling techniques.

Results indicated that a three-factor model provided a better fit to the data than the alternative models tested. The reliability of the scale was established using composite reliability. Furthermore, structural equation modelling revealed that the three MCSI factors were differentially related with external variables, indicating that the MCSI measures substantially different domains.

Implications for theory and future research are discussed.

The results add valuable evidence as to the cross-cultural applicability of the MCSI.

Suicidal behaviour is a common in prisoners, yet little is known about the factors that may protect against thoughts of ending one’s life. The purpose of this paper is to specify and test a structural model to examine the relationship between three criminal social identity (CSI) dimensions (in-group affect, in-group ties, and cognitive centrality) and suicide ideation while controlling for period of confinement, age, criminal friends, and offense type (violent vs non-violent).

Participants were 415 male juvenile offenders incarcerated in prisons in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Pakistan. A structural model was specified and tested using Mplus to examine the relationships between the three factors of CSI and suicidal thoughts, while controlling for age, offender type, period of confinement, and substance dependence.

The model provided an adequate fit for the data, explaining 22 per cent of variance in suicidal thoughts. In-group affect (the level of personal bonding with other criminals) was found to exert a strong protective effect against suicide ideation.

The research contributes important information on suicide ideation in Pakistan, an Islamic country in which suicide is considered a sin and subsequently a criminal offence. Results indicate that Juvenile offenders’ sense of shared identity may help to prevent the development of thoughts of death by suicide. Consequently, separating and isolating young prisoners may be ill advised.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the number and nature of latent classes of delinquency that exist among male juvenile offenders incarcerated in prisons in Pakistan.

The sample consisted of 415 young male offenders incarcerated in prisons in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KPK) Pakistan. Latent class analysis was employed to determine the number and nature of delinquency latent classes. Multinomial logistic regression was used to estimate the associations between latent classes and the three factors of criminal social identity (cognitive centrality, in-group affect, and in-group ties) whilst controlling for criminal friends, period of confinement, addiction, age, and location.

The best fitting latent class model was a three-class solution. The classes were labelled: “minor delinquents” (the baseline/normative class; Class 3), “major delinquents” (Class 1), and “moderate delinquents” (Class 2). Class membership was predicted by differing external variables. Specifically, Class 1 membership was related to having more criminal friends; while Class 2 membership was related to lower levels of in-group affect and higher levels of in-group ties.

Findings are discussed in relation to refining current taxonomic arguments regarding the structure of delinquency and implications for prevention of juvenile delinquent behaviour.

First, most previous studies have focused on school children, whereas, this paper focuses on incarcerated juvenile offenders. Second, this research includes delinquents from Pakistan, whereas, most previous research has examined delinquent behaviour in western cultures.