Proactive and Reactive Criminal Thinking and Self-Reported Offending: A Cross-National Survey of Seventh- Through Ninth-Grade Boys and Girls

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to assess the cross-national generalizability of the moderately strong relationship between proactive criminal thinking (PCT) and reactive criminal thinking (RCT) and whether RCT correlates better with self-reported offending than PCT across gender and international cluster. Correlations between PCT, RCT, and self-reported offending were calculated and compared in a cross-national sample of 59,992 (29,083 boys, 30,909 girls) seventh through ninth graders. These correlational analyses were conducted on the total sample as well as on six different international clusters. Consistent with predictions, the PCT and RCT correlated highly in all samples (.51-.62) and though the two scales achieved similar correlations with offending, the RCT correlated significantly better with offending after controlling for PCT than PCT correlated with offending after controlling for RCT. These results provide cross-national support for the supposition that RCT is a more important correlate of offending than PCT in early to mid-adolescence.

Keywords

proactive criminal thinking reactive criminal thinking cross-national

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