Document Type

Thesis

Date of Degree Completion

Spring 2019

Degree Name

Master of Science (MS)

Department

Experimental Psychology

Committee Chair

Danielle Polage

Second Committee Member

Megan Matheson

Third Committee Member

Ralf Greenwald

Abstract

Working with four Washington State county jails to administer surveys to currently incarcerated inmates, we investigated locus of control and beliefs in the likelihood of continued legal involvement as possible antecedents to criminal recidivism. The surveys examined whether there was any connection between legal involvement frequency and the externalization of locus of control. We investigated external locus of control with specific respect to involvement with the law, the prospect of future incarceration, and feelings concerning the overall cause of original and/or sustained legal involvement utilizing the Revised Causal Dimension Scale (McAuley, Duncan, & Russell, 1992). We identified statistically significant interactions between these variables and built a significant predictive path model beginning with elements of locus of control and terminating on increased legal involvement.

Comments

Danielle Polage will be listed as second author when this research is submitted for journal publication in summer/fall of 2019. If you cite this research after retrieving it from this database, please MAKE SURE Danielle Polage is listed as second author in your citation. Thank you.

Language

English

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