Abstract

This research examined the systematic processes utilized in the development and validation of the Crime Behaviour Factor Battery (CBFB) for measuring crime behaviours and factors responsible for such. The intended sample was 900 Nigerian adolescents, youths and adults, popularly believed to be prone to committing crime; but only 548 of them finally participated in the research. Their ages ranged between 16 and 58 with a mean of 30.5. The internal consistency for the sub-scales ranged between 0.1183 and 0.8816. While the Crombach alpha (α) ranged between 0.9079 and 0.9726, the Guttman split half reliability (r) ranged between 0.8068 and 0.9073. The significant inter-factor correlation coefficient is an evidence for the construct validity of the scales. The significance of the inventory to psychologists, counselors and all kinds of researchers were discussed.

Key words: Crime behaviour, battery, reliability, validity, internal consistency.