Factors Predicting Prison Misconduct: Moving Beyond Actuarial Measures?

• In Event: Factors Affecting Prison Misconduct

Abstract

Survey data from the 1997 Survey of Inmates in State and Federal Correctional Facilities were combined with official prison records to examine the factors that predict prison misconduct for inmates. Criminal history covariates and variables that are not themselves part of a criminal history (substance abuse, educational deficiencies, physical and sexual abuse, and family environment) were analyzed. The analyses showed that the actuarial, criminal-history variables were consistent predictors of misconduct in the models investigated. Misconduct was viewed in three ways. A model of any type of misconduct was checked as well as models of violent and drug misconduct. The latter two models correspond well to behaviors that are prohibited outside as well as inside of prison.

Authors

• Scott D. Camp, Federal Bureau of Prisons

• Dawn Daggett, Federal Bureau of Prisons