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Abstract
The current study aimed to explore subgroups of adolescent juvenile offenders based on personality profiles. The Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory was administered to 268 male and 45 female juvenile offenders as part of court-mandated assessment. A two-step cluster analysis involving Wards Method hierarchical cluster analysis followed by a K-Means iterative partitioning cluster analysis was performed on the female dataset, male dataset, and the combined datasets. A three cluster solution was decided upon as optimal. The three clusters were labeled Psychopathological, Interpersonally Sensitive, and Normative. Cluster characteristics were analyzed to determine differences relating to age, ethnicity, and offense type; however, no clinically significant differences were found. Results were assessed in relation to theories of offending and comparisons were made with other studies of offenders. Implications for practice, as well as further research, were explored.