Predicting Institutional Adjustment With the Lifestyle Criminality Screening Form and the Antisocial Features and Aggression Scales of the PAI

Abstract

I included scores on the Antisocial Features (ANT) and Aggression (AGG) scales of the Personality Assessment Inventory (Morey, 1991) and ratings on the Lifestyle Criminality Screening Form (LCSF; Walters, White,& Denney, 1991) along with age and prior disciplinary record in a series of negative binomial regression analyses of total, no aggressive, and aggressive incident reports (IRs) received in a 2-year follow-up of 120 male maximum security federal prisoners. Findings indicated that the AGG scale, but not the LCSF or ANT, predicted total and no aggressive IR counts. The LCSF achieved significant receiver operating characteristic (ROC) results in predicting dichotomized aggressive IRs, the ANT achieved significant ROC results in predicting dichotomized total and no aggressive IRs, and the AGG achieved significant ROC results in predicting all 3 dichotomized categories of IR. Supplemental analyses revealed that the AGG continued to predict total and no aggressive IRs when the Psychological Inventory of Criminal Thinking Styles (PICTS; Walters, 1995) Proactive scale was included in the negative binomial regression but not when the PICTS Reactive scale was included in the negative binomial regression.

ACKNOWLEDGMENT

The assertions and opinions contained herein are the private views of the author and should not be construed as official or as reflecting the views of the Federal Bureau of Prisons or the United States Department of Justice.

Notes

¹The LCSF is not sold commercially, and I do not have a financial stake in the instrument.

²This is a highly reliable system with several checks and balances including the fact that it is subjected to annual review by the correctional programs and disciplinary hearing branches of the Federal Bureau of Prisons.

*p < .01.

**p < .001.