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Criminal Justice and Behavior
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The Latent Structure of the Criminal Lifestyle

A Taxometric Analysis of the Lifestyle Criminality Screening Form and Psychological Inventory of Criminal Thinking Styles

Glenn D. Walters

Federal Correctional Institution, Schuylkill, Pennsylvania, gwalters{at}bop.gov

Three taxometric procedures, mean above minus below a cut (MAMBAC), maximum eigenvalue (MAXEIG), and latent mode factor analysis (L-Mode), were applied to the Lifestyle Criminality Screening Form (LCSF), the Psychological Inventory of Criminal Thinking Styles (PICTS), and a combination of the two in a group of 771 male federal prisoners. It was hypothesized that the rating scale (LCSF) would demonstrate taxonic structure and the self-report measure (PICTS) would demonstrate dimensional structure. The PICTS—dimensional relationship was found but the LCSF—taxon relationship failed to surface. When the four most valid and factorially meaningful PICTS scales were combined with the four LCSF sub-scales, there was clear and consistent evidence of dimensional structure in the criminal lifestyle.

Key Words: taxometric analysis • latent structure • criminal lifestyle • Lifestyle Criminality Screening Form • Psychological Inventory of Criminal Thinking Styles (PICTS) • prison inmates

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Criminal Justice and Behavior, Vol. 34, No. 12, 1623-1637 (2007)
DOI: 10.1177/0093854807307028
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