Criminology Research Council grant ; (2/82)
Three hundred and eighty seven prisoners in Queensland participated in the study by completing the Cattell Sixteen Personality Factor Test (16 P.F.), the Holland Vocational Preference Inventory (V.P.I.) and a questionnaire relating to criminal history, and demographic information. in addition, prison staff rated 323 of the participating prisoners on nine 9point scales relating to honest, dishonest, and other behaviour.
The data were analysed by means of discriminant regression and factor analysis. Results indicate that significant personality differences exist among different categories of dishonest property offender, and also between each category of dishonest property offender, honest offence prisoners and non-offenders. In a cross-validation paradigm, the discriminant weights derived were able to correctly classify cases not included in the prediction analysis, up 93 per cent above the rate expected from chance. Over the 11 analyses conducted, the mean validation prediction rate was 35 per cent above chance expectations.
Results from the factor and regression analyses, which included ratings of prisoners by prison staff together with prisoner personality data and criminal history data, suggest that certain personality variables found in this study to be related to untrustworthy behaviour, are either not observed or not seen to be related to dishonesty. Personality profiles of Fraud, Misappropriation offenders, Robbery and Extortion offenders and Theft, Break and Enter offenders found in the recent study have been compared and this information examined to reveal the underlying motivation related to offending.
This information has implications for the design of treatment programs likely to maximise the opportunity for rehabilitation for these offender types. The development of training programs which contain modules providing the opportunity for rehabilitation, is considered to be of high priority. The research findings point to probable motivations involved, and could be of help in the formulation of offender training and education programs.
Implications for rehabilitation training
While the difficulty of the task of providing an effective training program for the rehabilitation of property offenders is not underestimated, the knowledge of some of the characteristics of dishonest property offenders provides clues as to the training components likely to be necessary for successful rehabilitation.
From the findings, it appears that independence and seclusiveness in decision-making, together with a lack of family training in sound decision-making, appear to be major factors in the personality of most dishonest property offenders. This being so, it seems likely that it would be useful to evaluate training programs that provide training and experience in effective decision-making, and in being less independent and seclusive in so doing.
From the responses to the interviews in this study it is clear that dishonest property offenders are prone to fantasies on theft-related themes. Clearly such fantasies are, at times, 'acted-out'. It therefore follows that in any rehabilitation training program, it would be wise to include modules which explore such fantasies. It would also be a good idea to enable trainees to test such fantasies against reality and to explore their likely role in predisposing the trainee to future offending.
The role of over-protection in the development of the personality of offenders in the theft and fraud categories also needs to be considered in the design of a treatment program. It appears that an over-protected childhood is likely to have deprived these offenders of the opportunity of developing an adequate value system and a sense of responsibility which would enable them to function without resort to dishonesty. It follows that any training program would be more likely to succeed if a way can be found to provide opportunities enabling offenders to develop their value system and to become more responsible. Here, it is likely that program content structured in ways that provide the opportunity for trainees to examine their present value system, the motivation and encouragement to change those aspects of their behaviour likely to lead to further offending, and the opportunity for the enhancement of those aspects which are positive, would be most constructive.
In the light of this research, the authors are at present developing a training program incorporating modules targeted at the development and enhancement of skills likely to be necessary for the rehabilitation of specific categories of property offender. The next stage in assessing the utility of this research is to evaluate the effectiveness of treatment programs which are based on the information on offender type obtained. Such evaluation results, if encouraging, could have wider implications for methodology in the future design of rehabilitation training for other categories of offender.