Sex Offenders: A Case Study

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associates of sex and non-sex offenders. Participants were asked to recall four adults with whom they spend most of their time (Mills et al., 2004). Then, indicate how much time was spent with the individual in the form of a percentage (0-25%, 25-50%, 50-75%, 75-100%). Subsequently, four questions were asked regarding the amount of criminal involvement of the individuals listed. Responses were used to calculate two measures of criminal associates: Number of Criminal Friends and Criminal Friend Index. The Number of Criminal Friends was calculated by summing the number of friends for which the participant responded yes regarding criminal involvement. The Criminal Friends Index was calculated by assigning a number ranging from 1 to 4 to the percentage of time spent with each individual. This number was multiplied by the number of yes responses. Then, the total responses were summed to provide a number for the Criminal Friend Index (Mills et al., 2004). The second measure, which consisted of offenders’ criminal histories were collected through official police reports and were summed to obtain the total number of incarcerations and criminal convictions. …show more content…
Mills et al. found a greater significance in the strength of the relationship between antisocial attitudes and prior criminal history for sex offenders, which is found regardless of controlling for Number of Criminal Friends. Where the two groups differed was in attitudes. After accounting for age in the sex offender group (21-79 years), the number of previous incarcerations were what distinguished them from the non-sex offender group (18-55 years). The MCAA may possess predictive validity since the relationship between both measures (MCAA and criminal history) are similar for both offender