Criminal thinking patterns: Are child molesters unique?

Mary A. Hatch-Maillette; Mario J. Scalora; Matthew T. Huss; Jerome V. Baumgartner

doi:10.1177/0306624X01451007

Criminal thinking patterns: Are child molesters unique?

Mary A. Hatch-Maillette, Mario J. Scalora, Matthew T. Huss, Jerome V. Baumgartner

Research output: Contribution to journal › Review article › peer-review

11 Scopus citations

Abstract

This study examined the ability of the Psychological Inventory of Criminal Thinking Styles (PICTS) to reliably differentiate between men with and without histories of child molestation crimes at a maximum-security state hospital forensic mental health unit. Results showed that as hypothesized, molesters (n = 28) were less likely than non-sex offenders (n = 35) to exhibit thinking errors captured by the Cutoff, Entitlement, and to a lesser extent, the Cognitive Indolence, Discontinuity, and Power Orientation scales of the PICTS. The findings support its use in targeting general criminal thinking errors for treatment in mixed-offender populations, as well as its use in sex offender populations to augment other sex offense cognitive distortion measures when designing treatment.

Original language	English (US)
Pages (from-to)	102-117
Number of pages	16
Journal	International Journal of Offender Therapy and Comparative Criminology
Volume	45
Issue number	1
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1177/0306624X01451007
State	Published - 2001

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Pathology and Forensic Medicine
Arts and Humanities (miscellaneous)
Applied Psychology

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title = "Criminal thinking patterns: Are child molesters unique?",

abstract = "This study examined the ability of the Psychological Inventory of Criminal Thinking Styles (PICTS) to reliably differentiate between men with and without histories of child molestation crimes at a maximum-security state hospital forensic mental health unit. Results showed that as hypothesized, molesters (n = 28) were less likely than non-sex offenders (n = 35) to exhibit thinking errors captured by the Cutoff, Entitlement, and to a lesser extent, the Cognitive Indolence, Discontinuity, and Power Orientation scales of the PICTS. The findings support its use in targeting general criminal thinking errors for treatment in mixed-offender populations, as well as its use in sex offender populations to augment other sex offense cognitive distortion measures when designing treatment.",

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AU - Huss, Matthew T.

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AB - This study examined the ability of the Psychological Inventory of Criminal Thinking Styles (PICTS) to reliably differentiate between men with and without histories of child molestation crimes at a maximum-security state hospital forensic mental health unit. Results showed that as hypothesized, molesters (n = 28) were less likely than non-sex offenders (n = 35) to exhibit thinking errors captured by the Cutoff, Entitlement, and to a lesser extent, the Cognitive Indolence, Discontinuity, and Power Orientation scales of the PICTS. The findings support its use in targeting general criminal thinking errors for treatment in mixed-offender populations, as well as its use in sex offender populations to augment other sex offense cognitive distortion measures when designing treatment.

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Criminal thinking patterns: Are child molesters unique?

Abstract

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