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39 Crim. Just. & Behavior 5 (2012)

handle is hein.journals/crmjusbhv39 and id is 1 raw text is: PREDICTING OFFENDERS' CRIMINOGENIC COGNITIONS WITH STATUS VARIABLES JON T. MANDRACCHIA University ofSouthern Mississippi ROBERT D. MORGAN Texas Tech University Certain thinking styles promote criminal behavior, and these criminogenic cognitions are not engaged in equally by all offenders. It is imperative to know which offenders are engaging in more criminogenic thinking so their problematic thinking can be targeted and altered during correctional treatment programming. In doing so, correctional mental health professionals may help reduce recidivism. In the current investigation, the researchers sought to identify offenders most likely to engage in criminogenic cognitions on the basis of status variables (i.e., demographic, incarceration, and mental health variables) using data from 595 adult male incarcerated offenders. Findings indicate that younger offenders, less educated offenders, Black and Hispanic offenders, single (i.e., not in a relationship) offenders, offenders without a violent index offense, offend- ers with a psychological disorder, and offenders not participating in mental health services all endorsed higher levels of some types of criminogenic cognitions. These findings have important implications for correctional mental health care practice toward criminal recidivism reduction. Keywords: criminogenic thinking; recidivism; crime; offender treatment D espite the decline in crime in the United States during the past several years (U.S. Department of Justice, 2010), criminal behavior continues to be a major problem in our society, with more than 1.3 million violent crimes and more than 9.3 million property crimes reported in 2009 (U.S. Department of Justice, 2010). Amazingly, the number of people incarcerated in the United States has continued to grow despite this reduction in crime. One major concern associated with the perpetual increase in the number of incar- cerated offenders is the financial cost of managing the correctional system, totaling more than $68 billion in 2006 (U.S. Department of Justice, 2007) and continuing to rise steadily (e.g., $1 billion increase in expenditure on state corrections from 2008 to 2009; National Association of State Budget Officers, 2010). The continual increase in spending on cor- rections despite a decreased crime rate is particularly troublesome given the recent eco- nomic downturn in the United States. As monetary resources have become scarcer, it is imperative to reduce the number of persons incarcerated in the United States. One of the biggest factors that maintains a high rate of incarceration is repeat offenders: those who are released from incarceration only to be rearrested, reconvicted, and reincar- cerated for another crime. Recidivism is common among released offenders, with approxi- mately one quarter being reincarcerated within 3 years of release (Langan & Levin, 2002). AUTHORS' NOTE: The research contained in this document was coordinated in part by the Texas Department of Criminal Justice (Research Agreement No. 535-ARO7). The contents of this report reflect the views of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views or policies of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice. Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Jon T Mandracchia, Department ofPsychology, University ofSouthern Mississippi, 118 College Dr #5025, Hattiesburg, MS 39406; email: jon.mandracchia@ usm.edu; office phone: 601-266-5303; fax: 601-266-5580. CRIMINAL JUSTICE AND BEHAVIOR, Vol. 39 No. 1, January 2012 5-25 DOI: 10.1177/0093854811425453 © 2012 International Association for Correctional and Forensic Psychology 5

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