Prison Officers' Attitudes and Perceptions of Attitudes

Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
Connecticut prison officers exhibit substantial misperception of the beliefs and attitudes of their fellow officers. On each of eight hypothetical conflict situ ations, officers perceive their colleagues as being less sympathetic to inmates and treatment than they report themselves to be. Officers who hold sympa thetic attitudes are likely to see themselves as isolated from the officer group, whereas officers holding attitudes unsympathetic to inmates and treatment tend to view themselves as in the mainstream of opinion, regardless of the ma jority view. In addition, officers tend to perceive unanimity among their col leagues even when consensus is lacking. These findings have implications for officers and for public policy regarding prisons.

This publication has 17 references indexed in Scilit: