A friend at church asked me to help with her son’s project for a college psychology class.
He was studying the criminal mindset of women inmates and needed a control
group to compare them with. So his mom handed out the survey to adult women at
our church.
I answered the questions as honestly as I could. Yes, I believe there are systemic issues
that keep people in poverty. Yes, I believe people of color are sometimes
treated unfairly by our judicial system.
A few weeks later my friend mentioned that her son was surprised by the results from our
control group: we scored extremely high on having a criminal mindset. Now, I
don’t know much about the methodology. The test is apparently a standard survey
developed and approved by boards to judge “criminal thinking.” But I was
offended by the results.