Prison Officers and the Willingness to Use Force

• In Event: Use of Force & Troubled Correctional Officers

Abstract

The dialogical nature of legitimacy in prison is complex due to the frequent and intensive interactions between prison officers, as well as the prison officers’ role as a mediating element for prisoners that influences their behavior. The study focuses on the role of self-legitimacy on prison officers’ willingness to use force and is based on national samples of prison officers collected in 2016 (n = 122) and 2022 (n = 165) in all Slovenian prisons and a correctional home. Results of multivariate statistical analysis showed that relations with colleagues, relations with prisoners, prison officers’ subculture, and year of sampling influence prison officers’ self-legitimacy. Results also revealed the positive impact of self-legitimacy, relations with colleagues, stress, prison officers’ subculture, and certain socio-demographic variables on prison officers’ willingness to use force. Findings indicate that if positive self-legitimacy evokes feelings in prison officers of greater normative validity than the state this can lead in practice to physical abuse of prisoners.

Authors

• Rok Hacin, University of Maribor

• Gorazd Meško, University of Maribor