1 research outputs found
The Suitability of the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire in Criminal Offender Samples
Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) are common in community samples and are
associated with various dysfunctional physical, psychological, and behavioral consequences. In this
regard, criminal offenders are at specific risk, considering their elevated ACE rates compared with
community samples and the associations of ACEs with criminal behaviors. However, assessing ACEs
in offender samples by self-reports has been criticized with regard to their validity and reliability.
We examined the suitability of ACE-self-reports using the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire (CTQ)
in a sample of 231 male offenders involved in the German criminal justice system by comparing
self-reported to externally rated ACEs to externally rated ACEs based on the information from the
offenders’ criminal and health-related files and on interviews conducted by forensically trained
psychological/psychiatric experts. The accordance between self-ratings and expert ratings was
examined considering mean differences, correlations, inter-rater agreement measures, and regression
analyses. Offenders themselves reported a higher ACE burden than the one that was rated externally,
but there was a strong relationship between CTQ self-assessments and external assessments. However,
associations were stronger in offenders seen for risk assessment than in those evaluated for criminal
responsibility. Overall, the CTQ seems suitable for use in forensic samples. However, reporting
bias in self-reports of ACEs should be expected. Therefore, the combination of self-assessments and
external assessments seems appropriate