Forensic psychology: Part 3: Appendix A

The following is a list of psychometric assessment measures that have, at minimum, norms and validity data for women in general, have been viewed as areas relevant to female offenders for needs and/or risk assessments, and which have shown clinical validity and utility with this population. General professional standards for administration and interpretation of psychometric measures apply.

• Level of Service Inventory — Revised (Andrews & Bonta, 1995). Previously the Level of Supervision Inventory (Andrews, Kessling & Kominar, 1982).
• See earlier discussion, as well as Coulson (1993); Coulson et al. (1995); Andrews, Kiessling & Kominar (1982); and Manual for the Level of Service Inventory — Revised (Andrews & Bonta, 1995).
• Psychopathy Checklist — Revised (Hare, 1991).
• See earlier discussion, as well as Strachan, Williamson & Hare (1990); Neary (1990); and Loucks (1995).

• The State-Trait Anger Expression Inventory (Spielberger, 1988). This instrument measures intensity of anger as an emotional state as well as disposition to anger as a personality trait. Norms are available for women offenders.
• The Carlson Psychological Survey (Carlson, 1982). The CPS has a validity scale and four content scales: substance abuse, thought disturbance, antisocial tendencies and self-deprecation. It also has norrns for women offenders.

These scales (Mauger & Adkinson, 1987) appear to have a distinct profile for many women with abuse histories, particularly battered women, who have characteristically low scores on assertiveness skills, high conflict avoidance, and high dependency scores. These scales have the benefit of being designed to assess change and have been found to be effective as a pre-post treatment measure within this population (Atldnson (St McLean, 1994), and with assertiveness treatment groups for women in general (Mauger & Adkinson, 1987).

Recently improved methodology and psychometric instruments such as the Abusive Behaviour Checklist and the Response to Violence Inventory (Dutton, 1993) may be of use within this population and represent improvement over previous measures such as the Conflict Tactics Scale (Strauss (St Geller, 1986). Questionnaires for assessing battered women's cognitions about violence are also published, as well as normative data on battered women for common psychological measures (Dutton, 1992). To this author's knowledge, no validation on psychometric instruments has been done in the area of violence in lesbian relationships, although there has been an increase in general published articles on the topic.

• Two measures are currently under development for clinical use and are widely used as research instruments: the Trauma Symptom Checklist-33 (Briere (Sz_ Runtz, 1989) and the Trauma Symptom Checklist-40 (Elliot & Briere, 1992). These scales are designed to assess traumatic impact, and have been shown to provide reasonable predictive validity concerning the long-term effects of sexual abuse. Overall and subscale norms can be compared to outpatient populations of women with, and without, a history of sexual abuse and provide general indication of the level of current trauma-related difficulties.
• There are three widely used instruments for the assessment of dissociative disorders that are associated with severe and early childhood abuse. The Dissociative Experiences Scale (DES; Bernstein & Putnam, 1986) is a useful screening device, while the longer Dissociative Disorders Interview Schedule (DDIS; Ross, Heber, Norton & Anderson, 1989) is a structured interview format based on DSM-III-R criteria for a variety of related diagnostic categories, particularly those seen in survivors of childhood abuse. The SCID-D IV (Steinberg, 1993) is a structured clinical interview instrument that assesses dissociative disorders based on DSM IV ciiteria and classification.

The Skills and Needs Inventory (Scarth & McLean, 1994). A self-report written inventory that elicits women's descriptions of their criminogenic needs, including positive and negative coping strategies used while in, and not in conflict with the law.

The Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale — Revised (WAIS-R; Wechsler, 1981), the Raven's Standard Progressive Matrices (Raven, Court & Raven, 1983) and the Multidimensional Aptitude Battery (Jackson, 1984) have norms and validity for use with women. Screening for cognitive abilities, dysfunction, organic damage and learning disabilities is desirable at admission, as well as for general programming considerations.

• The Beck Depression Inventory (Beck & Steer, 1987).
• The Beck Hopelessness Scale (Beck, Weismann & Trexler, 1974).
• Screening for depression and suicide risk is particularly needed at admission, when a woman is more likely to have been recently separated from children, family and support systems, and is not well known to staff/ program providers.

• Drug Abuse Screening Test [DAST] (Skinner, 1982).
• Alcohol Dependency Scale [ADS] (Skinner & Horns, 1984).
• Alcohol and substance abuse problems are prevalent in female offender populations, are linked to their offences, and programming needs while incarcerated and after release to the community (Blout, et al. 1991; Lightfoot & Lambert, 1991; Loucks, 1995).

• The Family Environment Scale (Moos & Moos, 1986).
• The Parental Bonding Instrument (Parker, Tipling & Brown, 1979).
• Women with chronic fraud offences characterize their mothers/families of origin as particularly rejecting and controlling, which has been confirmed by use of the Parental Bonding Instrument [PBI] (Atkinson & McLean, 1994). The dynamics of chronic fraud behaviour in women have been described as serving a compensatory function for emotional deprivation, and to protect their own families from feared emotional/ material deprivation (Atkinson & McLean, 1994)

• Eating Disorders Inventory-2 (Gardner, 1991).
• A high prevalence of eating disorders has been found in federally sentenced women (Lightfoot & Lambert, 1991). Screening for eating disorders is recommended at admission and periodically, given the health risks posed and the tendency for eating disorders to go unreported/unnoticed unless queried.

Traditionally, personality assessment instruments such as the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI-2, Butcher, Dahlstrom, Graham, Tellegen & Kaemmer, 1989), amongst others, have been used in female offender assessment, and have norms and validity for women in general. The major benefit they have provided has been in screening for a number of chronic or acute psychological problems such as elevated depression, anxiety, thought disorder, etc. A thorough clinical interview, or use of a structured diagnostic interview, would provide similar information.