Inmate Assaults on Staff: Challenges to Authority in a Large State Prison System

• NCJ Number: 107812
• Author(s): S C Light
• Date Published: 1987
• Length: 267 pages
• Grant Number(s): 84-IJ-CX-0036
• Sponsoring Agency: National Institute of Justice (NIJ); US Dept of Justice NIJ Pub
• Sale Source: UMI Dissertation Services
• Publication Type: Thesis/Dissertation
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America
• Note: State University of New York at Albany - doctoral dissertation

Annotation

This 1983 study used log-linear, logit, and linear subanalyses to examine New York State inmates' odds of becoming involved in assaults on staff, severity of assault incidents, and variation in assault rates at the prison level.

Abstract

Inmate probability of becoming involved in assault on staff was determined primarily by youthfulness and preprison history of deviance, suggesting support for an importation theory of inmate violence. Prison level attributes found to exert contextual effects included social density (high), mean length of maximum sentence (long), and prison security level (maximum). Individual inmate characteristics exerted no significant effect on the severity of assault incidents. At the prison level, mean inmate age and correlated variables influenced severity, implying support for importation. However, high social density exerted a contextual effect, supportive of deprivation theory. Across prisons, importation-related variables exhibited no relationship with assault rates, while variables implicit in deprivation theory exerted significant influences. These variables included maximum security level, large inmate population, high percent white guards, and low percent program staff. Finally, those prisons with the highest rates of assault on staff were those in which assaults were least severe. Codebooks are appended. Chapter notes, 5 figures, 60 tables, and approximately 160 references. (Author abstract modified)