Nonstranger Victimization and Inmate Maladjustment: Is the Relationship Gendered?

• NCJ Number: 250795
• Author(s): C. M. Cain, B. Steiner, E. M. Wright, B. Meade
• Date Published: August 2016
• Length: 26 pages
• Agencies: NIJ-Sponsored
• Award: Assessing the Relationship between Exposure to Violence and Inmate Maladjustment Within and Across State Correctional Facilities

Annotation

Using nationally representative samples of men and women housed in State prisons, this study examined gender differences in the effects of experiencing different types of non-stranger victimization prior to prison on inmate maladjustment.

Abstract

Scholars have hypothesized that victimization elicits distinctive effects on women’s pathways to prison and subsequent prison maladjustment, but few researchers have investigated gender differences in this relationship. Results from the current study indicate that pre-prison, non-stranger victimization affects men’s and women’s maladjustment similarly, with some gender differences—specifically, the effect of being physically assaulted by a non-stranger as an adult on violent misconduct was stronger among men, as was the effect of child abuse on men’s depressive symptoms. The findings suggest the effects of experiencing non-stranger victimization prior to incarceration on prison maladjustment may be gender-neutral more than gender-specific. Based on the study findings, non-stranger victimization should be deemed important in theories of men’s maladjustment as well as in theories of women’s maladjustment. 121 references (Publisher abstract modified)