Prediction of Violence History in Substance-Abusing Inmates

• Author: Kevin E. O'Grady,Thomas E. Hanlon,Timothy W. Kinlock
• Date: 01 December 2007
• Published date: 01 December 2007
• DOI: 10.1177/0032885507307124
• Subject Matter: Articles

The Prison Journal
Volume 87 Number 4
December 2007 416-433
© 2007 Sage Publications
Prediction of Violence
10.1177/0032885507307124
http://tpj.sagepub.com
History in Substance-
hosted at
http://online.sagepub.com
Abusing Inmates
Kevin E. O’Grady
University of Maryland, College Park
Timothy W. Kinlock
Thomas E. Hanlon
Friends Research Institute, Baltimore, MD
This study examines the relationship of various developmental factors, drug
abuse history, and current adjustment with history of violent criminal activity
in 183 drug-abusing inmates. The purpose is to determine factors that
discriminate among offenders who (a) have no history of violent criminal
behavior, (b) have a history of violent criminal behavior but have never
attempted or committed murder, and (c) have attempted or committed murder.
Inmates who have attempted or committed murder committed their first crime,
on average, as preadolescents, whereas inmates who have not committed
violent crimes committed their first crime, on average, in their midteens.
A history of torturing animals as a child is predictive of membership in the
murder or attempted murder group. Inmates who attempted or committed
murder were raised in families considerably more deviant than families of the
other two groups. Finally, commission of violent crimes is associated with
a higher current level of anxiety.
Keywords:
prisoners; violence; murder; substance abuse; drug abuse
Proponents of the criminal career perspective emphasize that there are
different dimensions of criminal activity (e.g., type, onset, participation,
frequency, seriousness) and that each dimension may require a separate
explanatory model (Blumstein, Cohen, Roth, & Visher, 1986; Piquero,
Farrington, & Blumstein, 2003). Moreover, several studies of juvenile
Authors’ Note: The contributions of the late David N. Nurco in the development and execu-
tion of this project and those of the late Robert J. Battjes in the preparation of this article are
gratefully acknowledged. This research is supported by Grant R01 DA 09050 from the
National Institute on Drug Abuse to the second author.
416

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O’Grady et al. / Prediction of Violence History
417
delinquency have suggested that various crime dimensions may have both
shared and unique correlates. For example, low social class appears to be more
closely related to the seriousness of offending than it is to frequency and
participation (Elliott, Huizinga, & Menard, 1989; Hindelang, Hirschi, & Weis,
1979; Inciardi, Horowitz, & Pottieger, 1993; Piquero et al., 2003).
J. M. Chaiken and Chaiken (1982), who obtained confidential self-report
data on more than 2,000 male inmates in 1978 and 1979, found that (a) a small
percentage of inmates (identified as violent predators) were responsible for
most of the crime, particularly serious crime, committed during a 1- to 2-year
period prior to the offense leading to incarceration, and (b) data on an inmate’s
drug abuse history (precocious, frequent, and persistent drug abuse, including
heroin addiction) were more likely than official arrest data to be related
to the seriousness and extent of criminal behavior. Approximately 90% of
inmates considered to be violent predators (a classification including those
inmates most likely to have precocious, persistent histories of heroin addiction
and/or multiple drug use) had never been arrested for drug distribution, assault,
or robbery, which, according to J. M. Chaiken and Chaiken, were their most
characteristic offenses.
Also examining self-report data on 233 male and 31 female prisoners
interviewed in 1988 and 1989, English (1993) found that a small proportion
of both men and women described committing a large proportion of the
total crimes reported. Although these men and women had similar rates of
participation in criminal activity, men had significantly higher frequencies
of violent crime and forgery, whereas the rate of theft was significantly
higher for women. However, except for a few studies conducted in the late
1980s on male prisoners (Horney & Marshall, 1991; Horney, Osgood, &
Marshall, 1995; Miranne & Geerken, 1991) or reanalyses of the Chaikens’
data (e.g., Canela-Cacho, Blumstein, & Cohen, 1997), subsequent reports
of the criminality of prison inmates have typically used arrest, conviction,
and incarceration data as principal indicators of the extent of criminal activity,
despite the above findings illustrating the added advantage of self-report
information.
In the introduction to their seminal work on the varieties of criminal
behavior, J. M. Chaiken and Chaiken (1982) provided a particularly com-
pelling case for the usefulness of data on the type, amount, and severity of
crime committed by prison inmates in helping the criminal justice system
distinguish among, and develop appropriate interventions for, different types
of offenders. Commenting on the shift in emphasis from rehabilitation to
longer prison sentences as a means of reducing crime and on public officials’
need for a single, encompassing policy that would allow them to quickly

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The Prison Journal
and effectively deal with criminals, J. M. Chaiken and Chaiken aptly noted
that “an important truth has almost been lost during these developments:
There are many varieties of criminals, and any single punitive solution
to the problem of crime is not only simplistic and unjust but also inefficient”
(p. 1). Two decades later, now that the criminal justice system has become
more severely overburdened and is “awash with drug-involved offenders”
(Lipton, 1998, p. 1), the need for information on the differential crime-related
characteristics of such offenders is considerably more urgent (Lipton, 1998).
Moreover, English (1993) strongly recommended that future research on
adult prisoners should include detailed analyses of the correlates of distinct
criminal career dimensions. However, aside from the work of J. M. Chaiken
and Chaiken (1982) and English (1993) cited above, research on the correlates
of various crime dimensions in samples of incarcerated adult offenders is
severely lacking.
Among dimensions of criminal activity, the severity of crime has partic-
ularly significant policy implications. Consistent with the Chaikens’ findings,
studies of narcotic (principally heroin) addicts (Kinlock, 1995; Kinlock,
Battjes, & Schwartz, 2005; Nurco, Hanlon, & Kinlock, 1991; Nurco, Hanlon,
Kinlock, & Duszynski, 1989; Shaffer, Nurco, & Kinlock, 1984), cocaine
abusers (Inciardi, 1992; Inciardi & Pottieger, 1991, 1994), seriously delinquent
youth (Inciardi et al., 1993), and the general population (Chung, Hill, Hawkins,
Gilchrist, & Nagin, 2002; Elliott et al., 1989; Farrington, 1998; Howell &
Hawkins, 1998; Krohn, Thornberry, Rivera, & Le Blanc, 2001; Thornberry,
Huizinga, & Loeber, 1995) have invariably found that a small proportion
of the sample commits a disproportionately high amount of violent crime.
Furthermore, compared to those of other offenders, the crime patterns
of serious offenders tend to begin at earlier ages, compose a wider variety of
offenses, occur more frequently, and persist across adolescence and adulthood.
Finally, and not surprisingly, serious offenders are less likely than other
offenders to favorably respond to various juvenile and adult behavioral inter-
ventions, including drug abuse treatment (Howell, Krisberg, Hawkins, &
Wilson, 1995; Kinlock et al., 2005; Nurco, Kinlock, & Hanlon, 1994).
In view of the above, researchers and policy makers have emphasized
that any attempt at a substantial reduction in crime in the United States
needs to focus on serious offenders (J. M. Chaiken & Chaiken, 1982, 1990;
Farrington, 1998; Howell & Hawkins, 1998; Inciardi et al., 1993; Kinlock,
1995; Kinlock, Battjes, & Gordon, 2004; Moffett, Caspi, Dickson, Silva, &
Stanton, 1997; Nurco et al., 1991). With regard to intervention at the adult
level, if steps are not taken to identify and selectively deal with the offenders
who pose the most danger to society, prison crowding will continue to worsen

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O’Grady et al. / Prediction of Violence History
419
(J. M. Chaiken & Chaiken, 1982; Kinlock, 1995; Nurco et al., 1991). However,
a more effective strategy would be to interrupt, at the earliest stages, develop-
mental pathways that lead to careers in serious crime (J. M. Chaiken &
Chaiken, 1982; Farrington, 1998; Howell et al., 1995; Howell & Hawkins,
1998; Kinlock et al., 2004; Kinlock, O’Grady, & Hanlon, 1999; Nurco,
Kinlock, & Balter, 1993). In general, the greater the number of risk factors
(e.g., involvement with deviant peers; deviant behavior among family
members, including poor parental supervision; poor school adjustment or
performance; residence in a poor, socially disorganized neighborhood)
one experiences during early childhood, the greater the likelihood of early
deviance, which, in turn, increases the probability of serious, frequent, varied,
and persistent deviance throughout adolescence and adulthood (Howell et al.,
1995; Krohn et al., 2001).
In a comprehensive literature review, Farrington (1998) strongly empha-
sized that several significant issues regarding the development and progres-
sion of violent and serious criminal careers need further study. Among those
considered particularly relevant in Farrington’s review were identification
of the salient differences, in terms of both early risk factors and adult life
experiences, between violent offenders and nonviolent, but equally frequent,
offenders; determination of the relationship between the age of onset of violent
crime and the type and frequency of subsequent violence in...