Individual and Environmental Sources of Work Stress Among Prison Officers

• NCJ Number: 249054
• Journal: Criminal Justice and Behavior Dated: 2015
• Author(s): Benjamin Steiner; John Woolredge
• Date Published: February 2015
• Length: 21 pages
• Grant Number(s): 2007-IJ-CX-0010
• Agencies: NIJ-Sponsored
• Publication Type: Research (Applied/Empirical)
• Award: Maintaining Prison Order: An Evaluation of the Effects of the Detection and Processing of Inmate Misconduct Within and Across Ohio Correctional Institutions

Annotation

Work stress has been linked to a number of negative outcomes for employees and organizations. Drawing from the Job Demand-Control (-Support) model, this study examined the influences of work stress among more than 1,800 prison officers working in 45 prisons across Ohio and Kentucky.

Abstract

Multilevel analyses revealed that individual factors, such as experiencing victimization and greater job demands, were related to more stress among prison officers; whereas, perceived control over inmates and support from coworkers and supervisors were associated with less stress. Facility violence was also linked to higher levels of officer stress across prisons. (Publisher abstract modified)