Using the MMPI-2 in Criminal Justice and Correctional Settings

The MMPI-2 is the most widely used and thoroughly researched personality assessment instrument in criminal justice and correctional settings. Based on empirical research with prisoners and other offenders, this is the first work that directly instructs correctional psychologists in the unique applications and interpretations of the MMPI-2 in these settings. A leading expert on the MMPI instruments, Edwin I. Megargee addresses how administration, scoring, and evaluation of the MMPI-2 differs in correctional settings. He describes the issues that psychologists must take into account, including the challenges of administering the MMPI-2 to prisoners; the assessment of malingering and deception; the meaning of offenders’ elevated scores on the various validity, clinical, supplementary, and content scales, including the new RC and PSY-5 scales; the difficulties of using conventional code-type analyses with criminal offenders; and instructions for interpreting offenders’ profiles with the empirically derived Megargee classification system. The book concludes with a discussion of the interpretive dimensions of Megargee’s computerized Criminal Justice and Correctional Report and case studies illustrating the analysis of the MMPI-2 profiles of various types of criminal offenders. Edwin I. Megargee is professor emeritus of psychology at Florida State University.