Comparing personality characteristics of juvenile sexual offenders and non-sex offending delinquent peers: A preliminary investigation

Abstract

2005). Comparing personality characteristics of juvenile sexual offenders and non-sex offending delinquent peers: A preliminary investigation. Sexual Abuse: A Journal of Research and Treatment, 17,[3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17] In the reference cited above, we reported on similarities and differences between juvenile sexual offenders (JSOs) and nonsexual offending delinquent peers (non-JSOs) on the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory-Adolescent Version (MMPI-A). Our initial analyses indicated no statistically significant difference in scores between experimental groups on any of the validity or clinical scales of the MMPI-A. However, inspection of data revealed that the mean score on Scale 4 (Psychopathic Deviant) fell above the cut off for clinical elevation for the non-JSO group but in the nonclinical range for the JSO group. Therefore, we created a dichotomous variable of "elevated" versus "not-elevated" on Scale 4. In our original article, we reported that chi-square analysis indicated that a significantly greater number of participants in the non-JSO group scored in the clinically significant range than those in the JSO.Unfortunately, we have discovered an error that occurred when we created the dichotomous variable, such that two participants in the JSO group were misclassified. After correcting for this error, we find no statistically significant group differences in the number of participants with scores in the clinical range on Scale 4, χ 2 (1, N = 36) = 0.18.Given re-analysis of our data after correcting the identified error, our interpretation of the findings as being consistent with those of Oliver and Hall (1993) is incorrect. Oliver and Hall found that nonsex offending delinquent peers showed more signs of psychopathology than did juvenile sex offenders. Instead, our findings are more consistent with those reported by Truscott (1993) and Valliant and Bergeron (1997). Both studies showed that JSOs and nonsex offending delinquent peers included in their samples did not differ on versions of the MMPI used in those investigations (i.e., MMPI and MMPI Form 168, respectively). 353 1079-0632/05/0700-0353/0 C 2005 Springer Science+Business Media, Inc.