The Millon Adolescent Clinical Inventory (MACI) as an Outcome Measure for Juvenile Sexual Offenders

Abstract

Objective measures of personality and psychopathology are assessment tools frequently used to better inform treatment professionals. An increasingly popular objective measure of personality includes the Millon Adolescent Clinical Inventory (MACI) given its usefulness with a variety of clinical populations across numerous settings. Although the MACI has been used increasingly within a forensic context, no current empirical investigation has examined its utility as an outcome measure. In this study, we compared MACI mean scale scores, obtained from 306 male adolescents adjudicated for committing a sexual offense, to scores obtained following treatment. At the time of incarceration, the average age was 15.77 years (SD = 1.42 years) and subjects were incarcerated for an average of 431.43 days (SD = 191.67 days). The results of the current study suggest that the MACI is a useful outcome measure. Significant increases between pre-treatment and post-treatment MACI testing administrations were observed for the Desirability, Dramatizing, Egotistic, Sexual Discomfort, Social Insensitivity, and Delinquent Predisposition scales. Post-treatment mean scale score decreases were measured on the Disclosure, Debasement, Introversive, Inhibited, Doleful, Oppositional, Self-Demeaning, Borderline, Identity Diffusion, Self-Devaluation, Body Disapproval, Peer Insecurity, Eating Dysfunction, Impulsive Propensity, Depressive Affect, and Suicidal Tendency scales. These differences are indicative of the positive impact of treatment as well as the negative consequences stemming from long-term incarceration with other offenders. Therefore, the Millon Adolescent Clinical Inventory is sufficient to detect clinically meaningful changes with juvenile sexual offenders. Directions for future research, and the importance of further exploring the MACI as an outcome measure, are discussed.