Applied criminology research

Applied criminology research

Development and Validation of the Crime Attitude Questionnaire in the General Population

Document Type : Original Article

Authors
Mehdi Shomali Ahmadabadi 1
atefeh barkhordari ahmadabadi 2
1 PhD in Psychology, Education department, Ardakan, Yazd, Iran. Email: mahdi_shomali@yahoo.com
2 Master's student in clinical psychology, Isfahan (Khorasgan) Branch, Islamic Azad University, Isfahan, Iran. Email: atefeh.8449@gmail.com
10.22034/aqcr.2025.2056447.1057
Abstract
Field and Aims: The inclination toward crime is a complex social issue with deep and widespread effects on society. This study aimed to develop and validate a Crime Attitude Questionnaire for the general population of Iran
Method: The target population included adults aged 20 to 60 in the city of Ardakan. A voluntary sampling method was employed, and 574 participants took part in the study. The research instruments included the Crime Attitude Questionnaire, the Criminal Thinking Questionnaire, and the Self-Control Questionnaire. Data were analyzed using exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis, Cronbach's alpha, and Pearson correlation, utilizing version 26 of SPSS and version 24 of AMOS.
Findings and Conclusions: Results indicated that the Crime Attitude Questionnaire comprises two factors: Rationalization of Crime (27.90% of variance) and Perception of Legal Injustice (17.04% of variance), which together account for 44.95% of the total variance. The overall reliability of the questionnaire was confirmed with a Cronbach's alpha of 0.922. Convergent validity was established with a positive correlation with Criminal Thinking (r = 0.478), and divergent validity was confirmed with a negative correlation with Self-Control (r = -0.537), both significant at (p < 0.001). All factor loadings were above 0.4, and confirmatory factor analysis indicated good model fit (RMSEA = 0.079, CFI = 0.949, TLI = 0.926). Based on the findings, it can be concluded that the Crime Attitude Questionnaire is a reliable and valid tool for assessing attitudes toward crime in the general population of Iran and can be utilized in future research and crime prevention programs.
Keywords
Development
Validation
Crime Attitude
General Population
Psychometrics
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  • Receive Date 22 March 2025
  • Revise Date 09 April 2025
  • Accept Date 12 April 2025
  • First Publish Date 12 April 2025
  • Publish Date 21 December 2024