Measures of Criminal Attitudes and Associates (MCAA)

Abstract

Recent meta-analysis has demonstrated that attitudes and associates are among the best predictors of antisocial behavior. Despite this finding, there are few psychometrically developed and validated measures of criminal and antisocial attitudes and associates. This study reviews the theoretical and empirical development of the Measures of Criminal Attitudes and Associates (MCAA), which is composed of two parts. Part A is a quantified self-report measure of criminal friends. Part B contains four attitude scales: Violence, Entitlement, Antisocial Intent, and Associates. The MCAA showed reasonable reliability (internal consistency and temporal stability) and appropriate convergent and discriminant validity. Criterion validity was evidenced in the scale's relationship with criminal history variables, and a factor analysis confirmed the four distinct scale domains.

Football hooliganism: comparing self‐awareness and social identity theory explanations

“…Item selection was based on the item's factor loading as reported by Mills and Kroner (2001) as well as on its applicability to our sample. Cronbach alphas were 0.89 for Violence (items 1, 13, 37 and 41, original item numbers from Mills & Kroner, 2001) Reduction of public self-awareness was measured by four items: 'When I am with fellow fans, I feel strong and I am much more reckless', 'During the match I never think of the fact that someone could punish me for shouting abuse to the other side's fans', 'In a group I don't feel personally responsible for shouting angry remarks' and 'Together with the fans of my side I shout bad things about others, because they can't catch me anyway' (a ¼ 0.67, M ¼ 2.93, SD ¼ 1.06). Two items measured social identity: 'I am proud of our side' 1 and 'I resemble the other members of our side' (a ¼ 0.72, M ¼ 3.29, SD ¼ 1.36).…”

“…Mills, Kroner, and Hemmati (2004) revealed that delinquent and criminal behaviour is often accompanied by negative attitudes toward legal institutions and authorities and positive attitudes toward delinquent peers (Gendreau et al, 1979), and pride in delinquent acts (Shields & Whitehall, 1994). Moreover, Mills and Kroner (2001;Mills, Kroner, & Forth, 2002) have developed an inventory for assessing these pro-criminal attitudes known as the Measures of Criminal Attitudes and Associates (MCAA). The theoretical framework of the MCAA is based on Ajzen's (1991) theory of planned behaviour.…”

“…According to Mills and Kroner (2001), not only attitudes regarding Violence and Entitlement are important for predicting violent behaviour, but also Intentions and Criminal Associates contribute to future criminal behaviour. In fact, these two scales were stronger correlates of criminal history than the two 'pure' attitude facet scales (Mills et al, 2002), and they were more strongly related to a measure that is used to predict recidivism (Mills et al, 2004).…”

“…According to Mills and Kroner (2001), the first subscale, Violence, indicates 'endorsement of attitudes that are supportive of violence. .…”

“…From the individual differences approach, we included the Five-Factor Model personality dimensions and attitudes toward violence (i.e. Measures of Criminal Attitudes and Associates; MCAA; Mills & Kroner, 2001) as antecedent factors. The most important process variables emerging from the situational perspective-loss of self and social identity-were also included as part of the present investigation.…”