USE OF THE JUST WORLD SCALE WITH PRISON INMATES: A METHODOLOGICAL NOTE

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Abstract
The 20-item Just World Scale was administered to 52 inmates of a maximum security prison who were taking college courses and 106 sociology students from a four-year college in the same geographical area. Reliability analyses showed an acceptable coefficient alpha (.70) for the student sample but not for the inmates (.38). Factor analyses yield five factors which were not the same for the two samples; in general, the just and unjust items loaded on different factors. These results suggest caution in applying the scale to samples of inmates and the necessity of ascertaining the scale''s reliability for that sample.