Further Inspection Into the Effects of Correctional Officers' Sex, Race, and Perceptions of Safety on Job-Related Attitudes

• NCJ Number: 250847
• Author(s): J. Wooldredge, B. Steiner
• Date Published: September 2016
• Length: 24 pages
• Agencies: NIJ-Sponsored
• Award: Maintaining Prison Order: An Evaluation of the Effects of the Detection and Processing of Inmate Misconduct Within and Across Ohio Correctional Institutions

Annotation

This article examines more closely the empirical relationships between correctional officers’ job attitudes and officer demographics and perceptions of safety.

Abstract

Bi-level analyses from 1,740 officers in 45 prisons revealed that officers’ sex and race mattered for shaping an officer’s pride with co-workers, consideration of transferring to another facility, and perceptions of co-workers’ job satisfaction, but only as they were linked to perceptions of sexism and racism. Perceptions of safety also mattered. Yet, levels of inmate crime and victimization were irrelevant for shaping attitudes. Positive attitudes were also more common in facilities housing higher risk populations, and in facilities for men. 31 references (Publisher abstract modified)