Psychological Characteristics of Successful and Unsuccessful Parolees: Implications of Heteroscedastic and Nonlinear Relationships

Abstract

This study suggests that the use of traditional statistical models can increase the already difficult task of discriminating between specific criterion populations, e.g., parole successes and parole failures. It would seem valuable for correctional researchers to supplement these standard models and approaches with others that allow for a relaxation of the assumptions of linearity and homoscedasticity, in particular. This should make it possible to uncover relationships, between independent and dependent variables, that might otherwise remain obscured. The potential value of this more flexible approach is seen in the present study-one which suggests that psychological characteristics of selected offenders may account for considerably more variance, in measures of parole perform ance, than has been reported to date.

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Cassell, R. and Van Vorst, R. 1954 Level of aspiration as a means of discerning between "in prison" and "out of prison" groups of individuals. J. of Social Psychol., 40: 121-135.

Ganzer, V. and Sarason, I. 1973

Variables associated with recidivism among juvenile delinquents. J. of Consult. and

Clin. Psychol., 40: 1-5.

Gottfredson, D. 1967 Assessment and prediction methods in crime and delinquency . In: Task Force on Juvenile Delinquency, Juvenile delinquency and youth crime. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office.

Gough, H. , Wenk, E. , and Rozynko, V. 1965 Parole outcome as predicted from the CPI, the MMPI, and a base expectancy table. J. of Abnorm. Psychol., 70: 432-441.

Guilford, J. 1965 Fundamental statistics in psychology and education. McGraw-Hill.

Hathaway, S. and Monachesi, E. 1953 Analyzing and predicting juvenile delinquency with the MMPI. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.

Hirschi, T. 1971 Causes of delinquency. Berkeley: SAGE Publications.

Jesness, C. 1966 The Jesness Inventory. Palo Alto: Consulting Psychologist Press.

Kahneman, D. and Ghiselli, E. 1962 Validity and nonlinear heteroscedastic models. Personnel Psychol., 15: 1-11.

10.

Knapp, R. 1963 Personality correlates of delinquency rate in a Navy sample . J. of Applied Psychol., 47: 68-71.

11.

Monachesi, E. 1950 American studies in the prediction of recidivism. J. of Crim. Law and Criminol., 41: 268-289.

12.

Scarpetti, F. , Murray, E. , Dinitz, S. , and Reckless, W. 1960 The "good" boy in a high delinquency area: Four years later . Amer. Sociolog. Rev., 25: 555-558.

13.

Schuessler, K. and Cressey, D. 1950 Personality characteristics of criminals. Amer. J. of Sociol., 55: 483-484.

14.

Waldo, G. and Dinitz, S. 1967 Personality attributes of the criminal: An analysis of research studies, 1950-65. J. of Res. in Crime and Delinquency , 4: No. 2, 185-202.

15.

Zakliski, F. 1949 Studies in delinquency: II. Personality structure of delinquent boys. J. of Genet. Psychol., 74: 109-117.