Over-Reporting Detection on the Psychological Inventory of Criminal Thinking Styles (PICTS) Confusion (Cf-r) Scale in Justice-Involved Individuals

Evaluation of criminal thinking is important in correctional assessments because of its salience to recidivism, or relapse of criminal behavior. The Psychological Inventory of Criminal Thinking Styles (PICTS) is a common instrument which assesses criminal thinking, one of the most salient risk factors of recidivism. However, little is known about the accuracy of the validity scales of this instrument. This study examines the effectiveness of the PICTS' over-reporting validity indicator, the Confusion-revised (Cf-r) scale, using the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory-2-Restructured Form's (MMPI-2-RF) over-reporting validity scales as criterion measures. The sample is composed of 165 mostly white (66%), mid-to-late 20 s (M = 27.4 years old, SD = 8.3), males who underwent a mental health evaluation in a court-ordered residential treatment facility. All participants had a prior substance-use-disorder diagnosis and moderate to high criminal risk. Mean comparisons across MMPI-2-RF recommended over-reporting scales as well as classification accuracy analyses were conducted. The results support the use of the PICTS recommended cut-score for Cf-r, as it produced high specificity (> 0.90) and strong area under the curve (AUC) classification accuracy (AUC = 0.76, 95% CI = [0.67, 0.84]). The implications for this study are the discussions in terms of criminal-thinking evaluation.