The validity of the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory/Psychopathic Deviate (Pd) and Pd + ,4K scales to discriminate levels of social deviance among young black men was investigated. Study 1 established that black inmates at a federal correctional institution had significantly higher scores on both scales than culturally deprived black university students. Study 2 demonstrated that among the inmates, recidivists had significantly higher scores than first offenders and that among the students, there were significant differences in the expected directions among subgroups differing in self-reported delinquency. Study 3 showed that the black subjects had higher scores than comparable samples of white subjects. It was concluded that Pd and Pd + .4K both validly differentiate levels of social deviance among young black men but that the norms for the scales appear to show racial bias.

Previous research has disclosed significant differences in the severity of sentences imposed on black and white offenders. This study investigated racial differences in black-white sentence patterns at the final stage of the criminal justice process, focusing on the actual amount of time served and the frequency of parole in a sample of 958 youthful offenders from a cohort of 1,345 consecutive admissions to a federal correctional institution.No racial differences were found in the actual amount of time served, but a significantly higher percentage of whites than blacks were granted parole. Blacks who were granted parole served a smaller portion of their sentences than did whites who were granted parole, but nonparoled blacks served a greater portion than did nonparoled whites. Discriminant function analysis did not show race to be significantly associated with decision to grant parole; instead, the primary factor was the entry sentence, with offenders sentenced to relatively short terms (less than eighteen months) being paroled less frequently than those with longer terms. Since blacks were more likely to have the shorter sentences, the racial difference in percentage granted parole was partly attributable to the severity of the sentence imposed originally.Examination of thirteen offender variables reflecting personal and social history, legal factors, and institutional adjustment measures revealed significant differences between paroled and nonparoled inmates but not between racial groups. Further discriminant analysis of factors associated with parole within black and white subsamples indicated that, of the thirteen variables