Identifying criminogenic needs using the personality assessment inventory with males who have sexually offended

Abstract

The present study investigated the relationships between the scales of the Personality Assessment Inventory (PAI) and variables relevant to recidivism risk and criminogenic need to inform clinicians’ use of the PAI for purposes of treatment planning and risk management. PAI profiles, risk measure and domain scores, and recidivism data were collected for 158 males who have been convicted of sexually offending. Data were analyzed to investigate whether select clinical scales of the PAI correlated with conceptually relevant domains of risk and/or recidivism. Our findings demonstrated that the antisocial scales were consistently associated with risk constructs and recidivism, while very few clinical and personality scales showed relationships with risk constructs. The PAI seems to include select scales that represent risk-related needs, but also, other scales that may be more related to responsivity issues, and therefore may have utility to address two of the risk, need, and responsivity principles.