Comprehensive Misconduct Inventory (CMI – 50)

Abstract

The Comprehensive Misconduct Inventory (CMI – 50) is a self-report instrument developed by D. L. Paulhus to quantify a broad spectrum of misbehaviors, ranging in severity from minor transgressions to serious criminal acts. Initially comprising 50 items, the scale is often utilized in expanded forms (e.g., CMI-58) within non-clinical and non-forensic samples, particularly university students. The primary utility of the CMI is its ability to measure chronic antisocial tendencies and, critically, its strong established association with core personality traits related to psychopathy, as measured by tools like the Self-Report Psychopathy Scale (SRP-II). The inventory provides domain-specific scores across various clusters of misconduct, offering a nuanced assessment of an individual’s history and propensity for rule-breaking behavior.

Keywords

Comprehensive Misconduct Inventory, CMI-50, Psychopathy, Misconduct, Antisocial Behavior, Criminality, Drug Abuse, Self-Report, Personality Assessment, Bullying

Authors

Paulhus, D. L.

Purpose

The primary purpose of the Comprehensive Misconduct Inventory (CMI) is two-fold: first, to systematically assess the frequency and variety of misconduct behaviors reported by individuals, covering domains such as substance abuse, aggression, and criminality. Second, the CMI acts as a powerful predictor of underlying antisocial personality traits, specifically psychopathy. Research consistently demonstrates that psychopathy, often measured via self-report, is the strongest predictor of the overall score derived from the CMI.

The inventory is designed to capture misbehavior both retrospectively (during high school years) and concurrently (in the average month currently), allowing researchers to examine the persistence and manifestation of antisocial tendencies across developmental stages.

Construct

The core construct measured by the CMI is broad Misconduct, conceptualized as a dimension of antisocial behavior that encompasses a continuum from minor rule infractions to serious criminal acts. This construct is understood to be highly correlated with the “Dark Personalities” framework, particularly the trait of Psychopathy.

The inventory operationalizes misconduct through several distinct behavioral domains, reflecting the multi-faceted nature of antisocial behavior. These domains include direct aggression (Bullying), violations of law (Criminal Behavior), substance use (Drug & Alcohol abuse), and disregard for rules (Driving Misconduct and Anti-Authority Aggression).

Validity

The validity of the CMI is primarily supported by its strong convergent validity with established measures of psychopathy, such as the SRP-II (Self-Report Psychopathy Scale). Studies, including the key reference by Williams, Paulhus, & Hare (2007), confirm that CMI scores align with the four-facet structure of psychopathy even in non-forensic samples, indicating that high scores on the CMI reflect underlying psychopathic traits.

The scale’s ability to differentiate between various types of misbehavior (e.g., minor vs. serious criminality, soft vs. hard drug abuse) provides evidence for its discriminant validity, ensuring that it measures specific behavioral clusters rather than just a generalized deviance factor.

Reliability

Specific internal consistency and test-retest reliability statistics are often detailed in the primary psychometric reference (Williams, Paulhus, & Hare, 2007). Given its use as a standard research tool in personality and forensic psychology, the CMI is expected to exhibit strong reliability coefficients (high Cronbach’s alpha) across its major subscales, particularly when measuring stable traits like criminality and substance abuse propensity in young adult populations.

Factor Analysis

Initial Factor Analysis of the 50-item instrument yielded five distinct, yet correlated, clusters of misconduct: Criminal Behavior, Driving Misconduct, Bullying, Drug & Alcohol Abuse, and Anti-Authority Aggression. These factors suggest that misbehavior is not monolithic but expressed through specific channels.

A more detailed scoring key, often associated with an expanded version (CMI-58), utilizes an oblique Factor Analysis conducted on data from university students to define seven subscales. These subscales allow for a more granular assessment of behavior patterns:

• Soft Drug Abuse (SDA)
• Hard Drug Abuse (HDA)
• Minor Criminality (MC)
• Serious Criminality (SC)
• Driving Misbehavior (DM)
• Bullying/Harassing (BH)
• Anti-Authority Misbehavior (AA)

Instrument

Test Type: Self-Report Inventory

Format: Structured questionnaire requiring respondents to report the frequency (number of times) of specific behaviors, typically focusing on retrospective high school behavior and current behavior over an average month.

Language Available: English (Primary research language)

Population Group: Non-Offender Samples; General Population, often utilized in academic settings with university students.

Age Group: Adolescents and Young Adults (measures both high school history and current behavior).

Population Details: The seven subscales were derived from factor analyses of data collected from students at the University of British Columbia (UBC), indicating its primary validation in a university student population, which constitutes a non-forensic sample.

Test Methodology: The CMI employs frequency counts for past behaviors (high school years) and current behaviors (average month). Scores are generally standardized prior to summing to calculate subscale means, which are then used to form composite scores, such as an Overall Misbehavior Index or a general Criminality Index.

Keywords

CMI-50, Antisocial Personality, Driving Misconduct, Drug Abuse, Criminal Behavior, Factor Analysis, UBC Sample, Dark Triad

Authors

Author ORCID Identifier: Information not provided in source material.

Affiliation Email addresses: Information not provided in source material.

Correspondence Address: Correspondence generally directed to D. L. Paulhus, Department of Psychology, University of British Columbia.

Permissions & Fee and Test Year

The scale was developed by D. L. Paulhus, suggesting that permissions for its use in research or clinical settings should be sought directly from the author or his affiliated institution, the University of British Columbia. The scale has been in use since at least 2001, based on the earliest cited reference, with key psychometric validation published in 2007.

Reference’s

Williams, K., McAndrew, A., Learn, T., Harms, P., & Paulhus, D.L. (August, 2001). Dark Personalities: Anti-social behavior and entertainment preferences. Presented at meeting of the American Psychological Association, San Francisco.

Williams, K.M., Paulhus, D.L., & Hare, R.D. (2007). The four facet structure of psychopathy in non-forensic samples. Journal of Personality Assessment, 88, 118-129.

Items of the Comprehensive Misconduct Inventory (CMI – 50)

IMPORTANT: The following scale items must be preserved in their original language and must not be changed in any way.

Although everyone misbehaves as a teenager, we all do it in different ways. Write a number in each space provided. Your answers will not be stored with your name, so please be totally honest.

During your high school years, how many times did you:

•           purposely damage or destroy property that did not belong to
•           break into a
•           steal something from a store.
•           attack someone with a
•           throw objects (such as rocks, snowballs, or bottles) at cars or
•           carry a hidden
•           assault someone and injure him/her (including a sports setting).
•           pay for sex with someone (including phone sex).
•           join a gang that was known to commit crimes.
•           sell marijuana or hashish (“pot”, “grass”, “hash”).
•           copy answers from someone else’s test at
•           get totally
•           steal money from your
•           hit someone with your hand or
•           drive while impaired by alcohol or
•           sell hard drugs, such as heroin, cocaine, and LSD.
•           take a vehicle for a ride without the owner’s permission.
•           buy alcohol while underage.
•           use physical force in order to get someone to have sex with
•           use physical force to get money or things from
•           sneak into a movie, bus, or subway without paying.
•           steal something at school, such as someone’s jacket or
•           participate in a street race as a
•           break into a building to steal something or mess it up.
•           receive a speeding
•           sneak out at night without your parents’
•           get suspended from
•           kick someone in
•           swear at adults (e.g. parents, salesclerks, telephone solicitors, teachers).
•           purposely harass someone on the telephone or on email.
•           yell at other drivers so they could hear
•           buy or sell goods you knew to be
•           spend a night (or more) in jail.
•           plagiarize (copy) a school
•           use prescription drugs (e.g. valium, codeine) to the level of
•           use hallucinogens (“LSD”, “Mescaline”, “Peyote”, “Acid”).
•           use marijuana-hashish (“pot”, “grass”, “hash”).
•           use heroin (Horse”, “Smack”).
•           use cocaine (“coke”).
•           use ecstasy (“X”).
•           use other illegal drugs (Uppers or Downers).
•           lie about your age, g., to buy alcohol or get into a club.
•           run away from

These days, in AVERAGE MONTH month, how often do you do the following:

•           have more than one alcoholic drink at a
•           use soft
•           honk in anger at other
•           say cruel things to
•           shove or slap
•           appear obviously drunk in public places.
•           ridicule someone who is
•           play violent
•           park in an illegal parking
•           drive 20 miles over the speed limit
•           argue with your
•           tail-gate someone on
•           do things just to bother authority figures (e.g., teachers, parents, other adults).
•           download illegally copied programs from the
•           drive a motor

CMI – 58 Scoring Key:

Six subscale scores can be obtained by calculating the mean of the following items. (Note that all items must be standardized prior to summing):

• Soft Drug Abuse (SDA) = 12, 15, 18, 35, 37, 44, 45, 49 (8 items)
• Hard Drug Abuse (HDA) = 16, 36, 38, 39, 40, 41 (6 items)
• Minor Criminality (MC) = 3, 5, 8, 11, 21, 22, 27, 32, 34, 42 (10 items)
• Serious Criminality (SC) = 1, 2, 4, 6, 9, 10, 14, 19, 24, 33 (10 items)
• Driving Misbehavior (DM) = 17, 23, 25, 31, 46, 53, 55 (7 items)
• Bullying/Harassing (BH) = 7, 20, 28, 30, 47, 48, 50, 51 (8 items)
• Anti-Authority Misbehavior (AA) = 13, 26, 29, 43, 52, 54, 56, 57 (8 items)