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64 J. Crim. L. & Criminology 99 (1973)
Self-Reports of Deviant Behavior: Predictive and Stable

handle is hein.journals/jclc64 and id is 105 raw text is: TE JouxEAL or CRMUnAL LAw AND CRnarnoroGy Copyright 0 1973 by Northwestern University School of Ldw SELF-REPORTS OF DEVIANT BEHAVIOR: PREDICTIVE AND STABLE? DAVID P. FARRINGTON* INTRODUCTION The key dependent variable in criminology is deviant behavior. in the past, this has often been defined according to the criminal law and measured using the official statistics of crime. However, it is now generally believed that official records do not provide an accurate measure of deviant behavior. Criticisms of official statistics have stimulated the development of alternative methods of measuring deviant behavior, and one of the most popular of these is the self-report questionnaire. The use of such questionnaires has increased dramatically in the last decade, but their technical development, as measured by the usual psychometric criteria, seems to have stagnated since the pioneering work of Nye and Short.' Ideally, what is needed is a standard question- naire with a routine procedure for administration, objective scoring, norms for various populations, details of internal consistency, retest stability and concurrent and predictive validity. Without such a technically advanced questionnaire, it is im- possible to be sure that this method of measuring deviant behavior is superior to the official records. It is illuminating to review the progress which has so far been made towards the psychometric ideal.2 Questionnaire Construction It has been argued that each questionnaire contains a sample from a population (f deviant acts.3 Consequently, the correctness of any con- * Research Psychologist, Cambridge University Institute of Criminology. This research was supported by the British Home Office. , INye & Short, Scaling Delinquent Behavior, 22 Am. SocioLoGicA. REv. 326-331 (1957); Short & Nye, The Extent of Unrecorded Juvenile Delinquency: Tenta- tive Condusiow, 49 J. Cmv. L.C. & P.S. 296-302 (1958); F. NYE, FAmIY RELATiONSmpS AND DE- LiNQuENT BEHAVIOR 10-22 (1958). 2 Se also R. HAnDT & G. BODINE, DEVELOPMENT OP SELF-REPoRT INSTRUIm NTS Ix DELInQUENcY RE- SEARCH (1965); R. HOOD & R. SPAREs, KEY IssUEs IN CRmINOLOraY 61-70 (1970). 3 Christie, Andenaes & Skirbekk, A Study of Self- reported Crime, in 1 ScANDIxAVIAN STUDIES IN Cuan- NOLOGY 94 (K. Christiansen ed. 1965). clusions about the population (deviant behavior in general) depends on the representativeness of the sample. Comparatively trivial acts have often been over-represented on questionnaires, typi- cally because of the admission frequencies re- quired for statistical operations such as Guttman scaling.' In most investigations, all the questions have been phrased in the same direction, with the re- spondents asked whether they had committed each deviant act. This means that response sets such as acquiescence might constitute important sources of bias.6 In order to minimize such bias, the items could be phrased both positively and negatively, or alternatively scattered at random throughout a larger questionnaire.6 Ideally, each item should be interpreted in the same way by each respondent.7 This is particu- larly unlikely to happen when evaluative words like stealing are used in the description of the acts. What is objectively the same sequence of actions might be termed stealing by one re- spondent but not by another. A uniform inter- pretation might be secured by carefully defining each act in terms of specified behavior in a sped- fled situation. However, very complex descrip- tions could militate against understanding, and each act might in the end cover such a minute segment of behavior that the questionnaire would need to be impractically long. Administration Procedure Some self-report questionnaires have been completed non-vocally by respondents with a minimum of supervision, often in a group situa- 4Voss, Socio-conomic Status and Reported De- linquent .Behaior, 13 SOCIAL PROBLMS 316 (1965). 5 See, e.g., P. VERNON, PERsoNALrY AssEssmENT: A CRITICAL SuRvEY 206-211 (1964). 6See also Hardt & Peterson, Arrests of Self and Friends as Indicators of Delinquency Involvement, 5 J. RESEARCH IN CRruM & DELINQUENcY 46 (1968). 7Interpretations placed on acts by respondents have been investigated by Elinhom, Study in Self-re- potted Delinquency among School Children in Stockholm, in 1 ScANDmJAvm STDiES IN CRIMNoLoGY 123-124 (K. Christiansen ed. 1965); and by Heise, Norms and Individual Patterns in Student Deviancy, 16 SOCIAL PROBLEMS 92 (1968). Vol. 64, No. I Printed in U.S.A.

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