The White-Collar Prison Experience: An Empirical Assessment of Positive and Negative Prison Outcomes and the Special Sensitivity Hypothesis

• In Event: White-Collar Crime at 75: Sanctioning

Abstract

Using multilevel analyses and nationally representative data, the authors examine the extent to which white-collar inmates differ from their non-white-collar counterparts regarding positive and negative prison outcomes (e.g., participation in inmate support groups; victimization). Contextual differences between state and federal prisons are also assessed. Policy implications and discussion are framed in terms of the pains of imprisonment and, more specifically, the special sensitivity hypothesis as originally proposed by Benson and Cullen (1988).

Authors

• Matt Logan, University of Cincinnati

• Michael L. Benson, University of Cincinnati

• Francis T. Cullen, University of Cincinnati