NCJ Number
101329
Date Published
1986
Length
283 pages
Annotation
This study examined the nature and extent of inmate rule violations in six British women's prisons, the context in which these violations occurred, and ways in which they could have been counteracted and prevented.
Abstract
The researcher was a participant observer in each prison for a month between July 1980 and March 1981. Data were obtained from stratified samples of women which made up 40 to 50 percent of the institutional population. (Samples totaled 33 inmates.) Three institutions were 'open' and three 'closed.' Data were obtained through inmate interviews and the administration of various instruments, including a self-reported misbehavior questionnaire, a victim survey, a measure of attitudes toward coping modes in prison, the Moos Correctional Institutions Environment Scale, the Osgood Semantic Differential Scales, an assessment of prison organization, and a description of inmates' personal and biographical characteristics. The rule violations reported tended to be minor and inherent to prison life. Both individual differences in inmates' ages and attitudes as well as institutional characteristics of the prisons significantly predicted minor and serious misbehavior. When differences in individual characteristics were controlled, the nature of the prison's organization bore an independent relationship to minor and serious misbehavior. Institutions which exerted heavy and unendurable pressures upon inmates with particular characteristics promoted frequent disorder. Tables and a 400-item bibliography.