Classification of Rapists in Massachusetts, 1980-1990 (ICPSR 9976)

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Study Purpose View help for Study Purpose

To facilitate clinical and forensic decisions about sex offenders, as well as to further an understanding of the etiology of sexual aggression, a programmatic effort to develop and validate taxonomic models to reduce the manifest heterogeneity among sexual offenders was undertaken. The present research grant had as its mission the testing and refinement of the second iteration of a taxonomic model for rapists (MTC:R3). Archival data were collected on 255 incarcerated rapists who had been classified according to MTC:R3. These data were used to examine the predictive and concurrent validity of the system.

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This study applied the most recent version of a classification system for rapists to a sample of offenders that were currently or previously incarcerated at the Massachusetts Treatment Center (MTC) to assess the system's reliability and concurrent and predictive validity. This typology includes nine subtypes of rapists that are classified according to dimensions that are resumptively important in differentiating among rapists (e.g., generalized or global anger, misogynistic anger, eroticized anger, impulsive, antisocial personality, degree of preoccupation with gratification of sexual needs, and social competence). The nine subtypes in this prototypic system include: (1) Opportunistic offender with Low Social Competence, (2) Opportunistic offender with High Social Competence, (3) Pervasively Angry offender, (4) Overt Sadistic offender, (5) Muted Sadistic offender, (6) Sexualized, Nonsadistic offender with High Social Competence, (7) Sexualized, Nonsadistic offender with Low Social Competence, (8) Vindictive offender with Low Social Competence, and (9) Vindictive offender with Moderate Social Competence. The nine subtypes are ordered according to similarity of dendogram from a series of cluster analyses. This project used operational criteria for MTC:R3 to classify about 250 rapists, representing a model construction sample and a generalization sample. The system's reliability and concurrent and predictive validity were examined using an extensive archival database.

Sample View help for Sample

The first sample consists of 201 rapists committed to MTC between 1958 and 1981. Of these 201 offenders, 107 had been discharged at the time of the study. In addition, this study included a generalization sample of 54 rapists committed after 1981.

Universe View help for Universe

Male rapists committed to the Massachusetts Treatment Center for Sexually Dangerous Persons.

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Both questionnaire ratings and classification judgments were made using the extensive clinical files that had been compiled over the years on all inmates committed to MTC. These files contained two primary sources of information: data gathered during a 60-day observation period when inmates were referred for evaluation and data added post-commitment on an inmate's institutional adaptation and progress in treatment. Post-commitment information routinely available included MTC records such as treatment progress reports, behavioral observation reports, work reports, summaries of program participation, results of psychometric assessments, and annual reports by an institutional review board. Information collected during the inmate's observation period included, in addition to diagnostic assessments and clinical interviews, data from multiple sources external to MTC, such as past institutionalization records, school and employment records, police reports, court testimony, parole summaries, probation records, and social service notes. These reports not only originated from different agencies, but were also written at different points in the inmate's life to describe events as they were occurring at that time. In many cases, social service and school reports that predated the inmate's first arrest or legal involvement were available. Access to these original reports helped to counteract the retrospective biases inherent in file research based largely on summary reports of a subject's life written after events of particular importance have already taken place (in this case, after the onset of criminal activity). Codings were made with the use of a questionnaire composed of three parts. The first part covered demographic information and the inmate's educational, occupational, military, medical, psychiatric, and criminal histories, as well as information pertaining to alcohol and drug use and detailed familial and developmental history. The second part of the questionnaire was comprised of a set of clinically derived scales that globally assessed the inmates on various aspects of social competence, aggression, antisocial behavior, and offense style. The third part of the questionnaire was a symptom checklist used to code the presence, severity, and/or chronicity of clinical and behavioral symptoms. The coded file data fall into six major categories: (1) demographic, (2) alcohol history, (3) family and developmental history, (4) criminal history, (5) clinical symptoms, and (6) major life events.

Response Rates View help for Response Rates

Not applicable.

Presence of Common Scales View help for Presence of Common Scales

None.

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Original Release Date View help for Original Release Date

1995-03-27

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