*Presented as a poster at the American Psychology—Law Society Conference in St. Petersburg, FL, in March, 2006. This study was approved by the Institutional Review Board (IRB) of West Virginia University.
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Criminal-Thinking Styles and Illegal Behavior Among College Students: Validation of the PICTS†
Article first published online: 31 AUG 2006
DOI: 10.1111/j.1556-4029.2006.00216.x
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How to Cite
McCoy, K., Fremouw, W., Tyner, E., Clegg, C., Johansson-Love, J. and Strunk, J. (2006), Criminal-Thinking Styles and Illegal Behavior Among College Students: Validation of the PICTS. Journal of Forensic Sciences, 51: 1174–1177. doi: 10.1111/j.1556-4029.2006.00216.x
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Publication History
- Issue published online: 31 AUG 2006
- Article first published online: 31 AUG 2006
- Received 5 Feb. 2006; and in revised form 30 April 2006; accepted 30 April 2006; published 31 Aug. 2006.
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Keywords:
- forensic science;
- criminal-thinking styles;
- psychological inventory of criminal-thinking styles;
- illegal behavior
ABSTRACT: The present study examined the relation of self-reported criminal-thinking styles and self-reported illegal behavior among college students. Participants were 177 male and 216 female (N=393) undergraduate students. Participants were divided by gender and further classified into four groups of self-reported illegal behavior: control-status offenses, drug crimes, property crimes, and violent crimes against people. The psychological inventory of criminal-thinking styles (PICTS) (1) measured criminal-thinking patterns on eight scales. Results indicated that males who committed violent crimes against people endorsed significantly higher levels of distorted criminal-thinking patterns on all scales than the control-status offenses, and drug crimes groups. Interestingly, female participants who committed property crimes displayed six significantly elevated PICTS scales whereas females with violent crimes against people had significant elevations on only four of the criminal-thinking style scales. These results extend Walter's initial validation of the PICTS with incarcerated respondents to a nonincarcerated population and show potential use of the PICTS with other populations.