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Predicting offending in prison: The predictive validity of the Prison Behaviour Rating Scales
Author(s) -
Cooke David J.
Publication year - 1996
Publication title -
legal and criminological psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.65
H-Index - 57
eISSN - 2044-8333
pISSN - 1355-3259
DOI - 10.1111/j.2044-8333.1996.tb00307.x
Subject(s) - prison , psychology , pessimism , predictive validity , predictive value , rating scale , scale (ratio) , statistic , variance (accounting) , clinical psychology , social psychology , criminology , developmental psychology , statistics , medicine , mathematics , philosophy , physics , accounting , epistemology , quantum mechanics , business
The Prison Behaviour Rating Scales were developed to measure three forms of disturbed behaviour, namely, anti‐authority, anxious‐depressed and dull‐confused. Prison officers rated 220 adult male prisoners on these dimensions and offences against prison discipline in the subsequent six months were recorded. The anti‐authority scale showed utility as a predictor of those who offended and those who did not offend. The combination of the anti‐authority and dull‐confused scales improved prediction. The relative value of a range of predictive statistics is discussed, it is concluded that the misuse of the variance explained statistic can lead to undue pessimism regarding the utility of psychometric instruments.