Taxometric analysis of the psychological inventory of criminal thinking styles in incarcerated offenders and college students

The Psychological Inventory of Criminal Thinking Styles (PICTS) was administered to 427 (204 male and 223 female) incarcerated offenders and 393 (177 male and 216 female) college students in order to assess the latent structure of the PICTS under conditions conducive to the formation of a pseudotaxon. Objective and subjective analyses of 3 different taxometric procedures - mean above minus below a cut (MAMBAC), maximum covariance/maximum eigenvalue (MAXCOV/ MAXEIG), and latent mode (L-Mode) factor analysis - in the total sample and 4 subgroups of participants were conducted. Results revealed modest to moderate support for a dimensional interpretation of the latent structure of the PICTS, despite wide differences in age, race, criminality, and PICTS scores between the groups in each subsample. The implications of these results for the lifestyle theory of criminal behavior are discussed.