Time perspectives and indefinite civil commitment: A preliminary study in Wisconsin

Abstract

Time perspective “is the often nonconscious process whereby the continuous flow of personal and social experiences is assigned to temporal categories, or time frames, that help to give order, coherence, and meaning to those events.” Zimbardo and Boyd developed the Zimbardo Time Perspective Inventory which provides information about the extent to which an individual endorses the following five time perspectives: past-positive, past-negative, present-fatalistic, present-hedonistic, and future. This study examined the time perspectives of 59 supervised release (SR) residents who were indefinitely committed under Wisconsin's Sexually Violent Person law and compared their time perspective scores to the ideal or balanced time perspective, as well as to those of an incarcerated sample. This study additionally examined the relationship of SR residents’ time perspectives to custody events. SR residents displayed a temporal dysfunction. Overall, 39% had a problematic sexual custody event, 42.4% had a legal sexual custody event, 70% had a technical custody event, and 14% had a non-sexual custody event. Those with problematic sexual custody events endorsed a significantly higher past positive perspective compared to those who did not. Those with legal custody events endorsed significantly lower past-negative and significantly higher future perspectives than those without. Those with a technical custody event had a significantly higher future time perspective than those without. Implications for policy and practice are discussed.