Predicting Inmate Perceptions of Retaliation or Harassment from Staff or Inmates in Female Housing Units: Individual Factors versus Social Climate Factors

• In Event: Issues Facing Correctional Staff

Abstract

Despite the fact that a number of studies have examined violence in women’s correctional facilities, there has been very little study of inmate perceptions of retaliation or harassment. The data utilized for this study were obtained as a result of a previously funded National Institute of Corrections cooperative agreement that developed the Women’s Correctional Safety Scales (WCSS), an instrument designed to measure the climate of violence in female correctional institutions. In addition to validating the various scales in the instrument using data from 4040 female inmates housed in fifteen correctional facilities located in seven different states, whether or not inmates feared retaliation or harassment from inmates or staff were regressed on a range of individual-related (background) and social climate-related (environmental) variables. We discuss the implications of findings for future research and correctional practice.

Authors

• Arika Bow, Eastern Kentucky University

• James Bevard Wells, Eastern Kentucky University

• Barbara Owen, California State University, Fresno