Criminal Lifestyle and Criminal Thinking Style as Predictors of the Results of Monitoring Activity of the Convicts in the Process of (Re)Classification

Abstract

The aim of this research is to provide an insight into the correlation between criminal behavioural styles and criminal styles of thinking with the results of monitoring the activities of convicted persons in the process of (re)classification. Criminal behavioural styles were measured with the Lifestyle Criminality Screening Form score (LCSF) (Walters, White, & Denney, 1991), and criminal styles of thinking were measured with the Psychological Inventory of Criminal Thinking Styles (PICTS) (Walters, 1995, 2005). This could identify and eliminate eight styles of thinking and four styles of behaviour characterizing a criminal lifestyle. The sample for this research consisted of 126 inmates of Banja Luka Correctional Facility. Seven out of eight criminal styles of thinking (mollification, cut-off, entitlement, power orientation, superoptimism, cognitive indolence and discontinuity) are negatively correlated with results of monitoring the activities of convicted persons in terms of thinking. Three out of four criminal behavioural styles (interpersonal intrusiveness, self-indulgence and social rule breaking) are negatively correlated with monitoring the activities of convicted persons in terms of behaviour. The General Criminal Thinking (GCT) score of the PICTS and Total LCSF score was found to successfully predict the result of monitoring the activities of 216 male offenders in the behavioural and thinking segment in the process of prison classification after controlling for age, marital status, level of education, length of sentence and recidivism. These results suggest that the GCT score of the PICTS and LCSF score may have a role in internal classification decisions. The theoretical and practical implications of these findings are discussed.