Assessing the Proactive and Reactive Dimensions of Criminal Thought Process: Divergent Patterns of Correlation With Variable- and Person-Level Measures of Criminal Risk and Future Outcome

Abstract

The goal of this study was to determine whether measures of proactive and reactive criminal thinking display divergent patterns of correlation with outside criteria. A sample of 3,039 male medium-security federal prisoners who completed the Psychological Inventory of Criminal Thinking Styles (PICTS) served as participants in this study. Despite being highly correlated (r = .75), the PICTS proactive and reactive scales displayed divergent patterns of correlation with the eight risk/outcome measures. As predicted, the proactive scale corresponded with lower criminal risk, older age of first conviction, and decreased odds of prior substance misuse and mental illness, whereas the reactive scale corresponded with higher criminal risk, earlier age of first conviction, greater odds of prior substance misuse and mental illness, and more evidence of subsequent arrest. Contrary to predictions, the proactive scale was associated with increased rather than decreased commission of disciplinary infractions in prison. When participants with elevated proactive scores were compared to participants with elevated reactive scores on the eight risk/outcome variables, the results revealed that the two profiles were moderately negatively correlated. Thus, although proactive criminal thinking is associated with below-average criminal risk and below-average future negative outcomes, reactive criminal thinking does just the opposite.