NCJ Number
188605
Journal
Corrections Management Quarterly Volume: 5 Issue: 2 Dated: Spring 2001 Pages: 13-19
Date Published
2001
Length
7 pages
Annotation
This study integrates three decades of research information on the correctional officer's job, using quantitative research synthesis methodology ("meta-analysis").
Abstract
The sample is composed of 19 empirical studies, which generated 190 effect size estimates and the integration of 6,427 cases. The predictors of two separate outcome variables were analyzed across empirical studies. First, studies that specified the predictors of correctional officers' job satisfaction or dissatisfaction, intentions to quit, and burnout were combined as predictors of negative job attitudes. Second, studies that specified the predictors of correctional officers' treatment orientation, custody orientation, and punitiveness were combined as predictors of attitudes toward treatment. The study computed mean effect size estimates for three categories of predictor variable (importation, deprivation, and management) across two dependent variables (negative job attitudes and rehabilitation orientation). The direction of the mean effect size estimates of imported characteristics suggests that being female, being a minority officers, and having more education were associated with higher levels of negative job attitudes among correctional officers. Further correctional officers who perceive their job as more dangerous and those who experience more role conflict and less supervisory support were more likely to report negative job attitudes (e.g., burnout, intentions to quit, job dissatisfaction). The majority of the individual models that predict negative job attitudes and treatment orientation tended to have relatively weak explanatory power. 2 tables and 43 references