A Cross-Cultural Examination of the Criminal Sentiments Scale–Modified

• Author: Sania Mazher,Sobia Masood,David J. Simourd
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1177/00938548221088812
• Published date: 01 September 2022
• Date: 01 September 2022
• Subject Matter: Articles

CRIMINAL JUSTICE AND BEHAVIOR, 2022, Vol. 49, No. 9, September 2022, 1295 –1310.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/00938548221088812

Article reuse guidelines: sagepub.com/journals-permissions

© 2022 International Association for Correctional and Forensic Psychology

1295

A CROSS-CULTURAL EXAMINATION OF THE

CRIMINAL SENTIMENTS SCALE–MODIFIED

SANIA MAZHER

SOBIA MASOOD

National Institute of Psychology, Islamabad, Pakistan

DAVID J. SIMOURD

Private Practice

Research has demonstrated that criminal attitudes are a primary predictor of criminal conduct; hence, measuring attitudes is

important. The Criminal Sentiments Scale–Modified (CSS-M) is a widely used measure of criminal attitudes; however, its

psychometric properties have been established primarily on Western samples and there is a pressing need to translate the scale

into other languages. Hence, the objective of this research was to translate CSS-M into the Urdu language and validate it.

This objective was achieved in three studies on samples of young adults. In Study I, the scale was translated and its cross-

language validation was established. In Study II, the factor structure of the CSS-M was examined through CFA. In Study III,

interscale correlations and gender differences were examined. Findings demonstrated that CSS-M is a reliable and valid

instrument when assessing attitudes toward crime in the Pakistani sample.

Keywords: crime; criminal attitudes; criminal conduct; recidivism; CSS-M

INTRODUCTION

Crime and criminal behavior are topics that have attracted considerable interest from the

public, politicians, and social scientists. Violent and nonviolent crimes have been quite an

issue throughout the world (Fajnzylber et al., 2002; Gumus, 2004) and there is concern that

developing countries are facing more serious crimes (Natarajan, 2016). This has led many

social scientists to explore various factors that can influence a person toward crime and deter-

mine how those factors can be controlled to reduce crime. One area that has attracted some

attention relates to attitudes. Theory and research have shown that attitudes have a strong

effect on predicting behavior (Ajzen & Fishbein, 2005; Andrews & Bonta, 2010; Maio et al.,

2010). More specifically, literature reviews using meta-analysis have consistently found that

criminal conduct and recidivism are empirically associated with pro-criminal attitudes

(Gendreau et al., 1996; Helmus et al., 2013). This has led to the notion that criminal attitudes

are considered to be an important predictor of criminal conduct and criminal recidivism.

AUTHORS’ NOTE: David J. Simourd died before the publication of this paper. This is one of his last works.

The authors received no financial support/funding for the research and have no known conflict of interest to

disclose. Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Sania Mazher, National Institute of

Psychology, Quaid-i-Azam University (New Campus), Shahdra Road (Off Main Murree Road), Islamabad,

45320, Pakistan; e-mail: suniyaabbasi@gmail.com.

1088812CJBXXX10.1177/00938548221088812Criminal Justice and BehaviorMazher et al. / CROSS CULTURAL CSS-M

research-article2022

1296 CRIMINAL JUSTICE AND BEHAVIOR

CRIMINAL ATTITUDES

Simourd (1997) described criminal attitudes as the collection of criminal attitudes, prin-

ciples, convictions, and justifications. Criminal attitudes are explained as beliefs, thoughts,

and attitudes that give personal support and rationalizations for crime and criminal behavior

(Stevenson et al., 2003). These generally represent criminal beliefs and justifications or

rationalizations to own criminal conduct of people (Simourd & Olver, 2002). The rejection

of convention, neutralization techniques, and association with criminal individuals are the

three main components of criminal mindsets (Andrews & Bonta, 2000). The key compo-

nent is that criminal attitudes, often referred to as criminogenic needs (Gendreau et al.,

1996), are dynamic characteristics that may be changed and treated (Arbach-Lucioni et al.,

2012; Mandracchia & Morgan, 2012; Redondo et al., 2012).

CRIMINAL ATTITUDES AND CRIMINAL BEHAVIOR

As criminal attitudes are favorably associated with criminal conduct and recurrence, they

have received a lot of attention in the criminology and criminal psychology literature over

the years. There is a strong relationship between criminal attitudes, thought, and criminal

activity. Empirical research (Mills et al., 2002; Nesdale et al., 2009; Simourd & Van De

Ven, 1999; Stevenson et al., 2003) suggests that those who have adopted criminal attitudes

and are oriented toward criminal activity tend to engage in that conduct. General (Andrews

& Bonta, 2010) or offense-specific (Helmus et al., 2013) criminal beliefs or sentiments are

substantially associated with recurrence with modest to moderate impact sizes.

The decrease in recidivism is considerably high in programs that are focused on chang-

ing attitudes than in programs that do not focus on these criminogenic needs (Hanson &

Harris, 2000). Therefore, whether in jail or the community, criminal attitudes must be at the

center of any treatment program. Tangney et al. (2012) conducted longitudinal research on

a sample of different races that included 44% African American, 36% Caucasian, 9%

Latino, 3% Asian, 4% Mixed, and 4% other and found that negative and hostile attitudes

toward law and authority significantly correlated with past involvement in criminal behav-

ior, previous imprisonment, and psychopathy. One of the studies, conducted by Webster and

Vermeulen (2011) in Kamloops, British Columbia, on individuals convicted of a crime and

those who did not convict a crime, showed that individuals convicted of a crime were con-

siderably more likely than other groups to see criminal behavior as justifiable and desirable.

Hence, the identification of predictors of criminal attitudes can improve intervention.

PSYCHOSOCIAL PREDICTORS OF CRIMINAL ATTITUDES

Past research has demonstrated various indicators and predictors of criminal attitudes

and conduct. There are different demographic, personality, and social predictors of criminal

attitudes and criminal conduct/behavior. Age (Farrington, 1986), gender (Steketee et al.,

2013), low socioeconomic status (SES; Rekker et al., 2015), lack of education (Feinstein

et al., 2008), and early onset of crime (Moffitt, 1993) are some important demographic pre-

dictors. Many personality factors in criminals have been identified in which antisocial per-

sonality (Mills et al., 2004), impulsivity (Bulten et al., 2009) low self-control (Pratt &

Cullen, 2000), Callous-unemotional traits (Frick, 2014), and moral disengagement (Gini

et al., 2014) are important. Social factors such as quality of relationships (Harris-McKoy &

Cui, 2013), parenting practices (Johnson et al., 2011), poor family functioning (Saputra,