The Gendered Nature of Criminogenic Thinking Patterns Among Justice-Involved Clients: A Pilot Study

Because much of our understanding of criminogenic thinking (antisocial cognitions) has been based on male justice populations, questions remain about the applicability of this construct to justice-involved women. Based on an item-level analysis of 216 justice-involved clients, results of this pilot...

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Bibliographic Details
Authors: Jones, Natalie J. (Author) ; Mitchell, Damon (Author) ; Tafrate, Raymond Chip (Author)
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
Published: 2021
In: Criminal justice and behavior
Year: 2021, Volume: 48, Issue: 4, Pages: 442-458
Online Access: Volltext (Resolving-System)
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Keywords:
Predictive Validity
Women offenders
Gender differences
Gender
Risk assessment
Criminal thinking
Description
Summary:Because much of our understanding of criminogenic thinking (antisocial cognitions) has been based on male justice populations, questions remain about the applicability of this construct to justice-involved women. Based on an item-level analysis of 216 justice-involved clients, results of this pilot study suggest that criminogenic thinking in women is relevant, and both overlaps with and diverges from that of men. In fact, the predictive accuracy for rearrest attained with a gender-responsive model developed for women exceeded that of the corresponding model developed for men (area under the curve [AUC] = .86 vs. AUC = .67). We recommend the creation of parsimonious criminogenic thinking instruments that optimize predictive criterion validity. Gender-responsive scales that capture the gender-specificity that exists in criminogenic thinking patterns can assist in (a) optimizing the prediction of reoffending and (b) identifying essential constellations of treatment targets among forensic populations.
ISSN:1552-3594
DOI:10.1177/0093854820942561