Prediction of Parole Success: Inclusion of Psychiatric Criteria

The various studies which have been undertaken to determine the predictability of parole success, and to guide in the selection of parole risks have to date been largely restricted to the use of objective data of the pre-commitment history, with perhaps the addition of such problems as offenses against institution discipline and the "psychiatric personality type." The inclusion in these studies of elements descriptive of characteristic personality patterns has been conspicuously rare,3 with the exception of the use by Burgess4 of the single personality type classification mentioned above. To anyone working clinically with offenders this is a conspicuous omission.