NCJ Number
168329
Journal
Criminal Justice and Behavior Volume: 24 Issue: 3 Dated: (September 1997) Pages: 391-404
Date Published
1997
Length
14 pages
Annotation
This study attempted to determine the appropriate cultural theory categories for groups of security and health care personnel and to suggest that ramifications of this theory may help to foster communication and cooperation between the groups.
Abstract
Cultural theory claims that there are only five basic ways of life, or worldviews, and that communication difficulties stem from different beliefs about right and wrong. According to cultural theory, communication difficulties between groups can be explained by understanding the participants' views of morality, appropriate behavior and just consequences for bad acts. This study examined interactions among correctional transport officers, clinic nurses and inmates with AIDS in a community hospital in the northeastern United States and, on the basis of comments culled from more than 500 hours of observation, placed each group in a cultural theory category. The majority of correctional officers were placed in the hierarchy category, nurses were egalitarian and inmates were fatalists. The increase in HIV and AIDS in America's prisons virtually guarantees an increase in prison and community hospital interaction. How each group views its charges (as an inmate first and patient second or vice versa) makes a difference in how each group does its job. Cultural theory provides a foundation for understanding viewpoints and may offer prison and hospital administrators a tool to begin construction of their relationship. References