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Background: Social and personal stigma surrounding mental disorders among public safety personnel (PSP), including correctional staff, is undergoing a process of transformation. We examined how diverse Canadian prison staff interpret mental health and treatment seeking. Methods: We conduct a secondary analysis of existing data collected through an anonymous on-line survey of 1,017 Canadian prison staff. Attitudes towards mental health and stigma were measured. Participants were also asked how likely they would be to seek help for a mental disorder. Comparisons between self-reported males and females and different occupational groups within prison were made using Mann-Whitney U statistics and an analysis of variance (ANOVA) with a Bonferroni correction. Results: Male participants (38.6% of the sample) were significantly more likely (p<0.001) to display stigma towards individuals with mental disorders and significantly less likely (p<0.001) to be willing to get treatment if they developed a mental health problem. We also found significant differences between prison staff based on occupation. Conclusions: Female participants and wellness staff report the most positive attitudes towards mental health and mental health treatment, yet some stigma still exists regarding mental disorders. Correctional staff are concerned about the impact of seeking treatment on their employment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Trust is crucial to the proper functioning of organizations. Trust has been examined at many levels, and researchers have recently expanded the study of trust to include areas ranging from the neuroscience of trust to the influence of institutional trust on product sales and marketing. While academic interest in trust has grown, research on trust and job stress among correctional employees is rare. The current study evaluated the relationships between three types of trust (coworker, supervisor, and management trust) and correctional staff job stress. Using staff survey data from a Southern prison, two multivariate OLS regression equations were estimated – one for all surveyed staff and a second for the subgroup of correctional officers – in order to determine how the three types of organizational trust related to job stress. Results indicated that trust in coworkers mattered for correctional officers only and that trust in supervisors and management had a greater influence on job stress both for all correctional staff and for the subgroup of correctional officers. Specifically, those with higher levels of supervisor and management trust reported lower levels of job stress. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is a growing body of research that has explored how workplace factors affect prison staff, although empirical research specifically aimed at how organizational justice affects correctional job involvement is lacking. This study examined how organizational justice's two primary dimensions of distributive justice and procedural justice were associated with job involvement, an important work attitude. Self-reported survey data was collected from 322 staff at a large Southern prison. Ordinary least squares regression analysis indicated that both distributive and procedural justice had significant positive associations with job involvement. The results suggest prison administrators need to be aware that organizational justice is important and that improving either distributive or procedural justice should increase job involvement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Staff are an obvious and important resource for correctional organizations across the globe. One important area that concerns staff is job involvement (i.e., the psychosocial bonds between staff members and their jobs). The majority of the limited research on how work environment factors affect correctional personnel has examined U.S. staff. To fill this void, the current study used the job demands-resource model to explore how various personal characteristics and work environment variables affected the job involvement of staff at two prisons in southern China. The specific personal characteristics were age, tenure, gender, educational level, and assigned prison. The job demand variables were fear of victimization and role overload, and the job resource variables were instrumental communication, job autonomy, transactional justice, procedural justice, distributive justice, job variety, and supervision. Tenure, fear of victimization, transactional justice, distributive justice, job variety, and supervision had significant effects on job involvement in a multivariate regression analysis, while the other variables did not. Except for fear of victimization, which had a negative association, the other significant variables had positive associations with job involvement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Studies have revealed that some, but not all, jail custody officers fear workplace victimization. The job demands-resources theoretical model holds that job demands result in strain, increasing the chances of negative outcomes, such as job burnout, decreased job satisfaction, and fear of being harmed on the job. This framework also contends that job resources help reduce psychological strain, and, in turn, reduce negative outcomes, including fear of victimization at work. Survey results from 587 custody officers from a large county correctional system in Florida were analyzed in order to determine how various workplace demand and resource variables were related to perceived danger at work. Our multivariate analytical models revealed that the resource variables of instrumental communication, perceptions that infectious disease among inmates being properly handled, perceptions that inmates were properly controlled, perceptions that security was proper, and supervisor support were related to decreased perceptions of danger, while formalization (a resource variable) and role strain (a demand variable) were related to increased perceptions of danger. Overall, there was partial support for the job demands-resources model, with some variables having significant effects and others not. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research has tested gender differences in perceptions, responses, intentions, and behaviors of correctional staff; however, no published study has tested whether the effects of social supports on work stress and job satisfaction differ by gender. The current study attempts to expand the literature by examining whether supervisor support, peer support, and family support, along with other workplace variables (role problems and dangerousness of the job), differ in their relationships with work stress and job satisfaction according to the gender of 501 correctional officers in Texas. Results of the Equality of Regression Coefficient Test revealed that the different forms of social support and the selected workplace variables had statistically similar associations with work stress and job satisfaction across gender, except for role stress on job satisfaction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The job satisfaction of staff is vital for the effective functioning of any organization. Many studies have been conducted that examine the job satisfaction of correctional officers, though mostly in Western nations. To examine job satisfaction in a cross-cultural setting, this study uses survey data from a sample of 163 correctional officers in a prison in the State of Haryana, India. We examine how job demands (perceived dangerousness of the job and role overload) and job resources (instrumental communication, job autonomy, quality supervision, and job variety) affect job satisfaction. The results indicate that all four job resource variables had significant positive associations with job satisfaction, while neither job demand variable was significantly related to job satisfaction. The implications of the study for policy are also discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Public perceptions of the police have important implications for both scholars and police administrators. While a growing body of research deals with perceptions of the police, including immigrants' perceptions, there is a need to explore the factors associated with different immigrant groups' perceptions of the police. One group that has not been previously studied is Bangladeshi immigrants, a relatively new but rapidly growing group in the USA. Relying on a purposive convenience sample of 202 Bangladeshi immigrants from six areas in the New York City, this study examined factors that affected Bangladeshi immigrants' positive view on the police. Bangladeshi women held greater positive views, as did participants who had a friend or family member who worked in law enforcement. Increases in educational level were associated with more positive views on the police, while recent contact with the police was linked with less favorable views. Finally, feeling that contact with the police would place a person in danger and that involvement with the police would lead to deportation were both associated with less positive perceptions of the police. Research and policy implications are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

People's views on justice issues are often a function of their socialization, the cultural norms, values and beliefs of their society. Views on justice often vary between nations. The current study explored and compared the views of Nigerian and U.S. college students regarding justice views. Nigeria is a developing nation which has a long history of informal restorative justice practices, but also uses formal government justice agencies to deal with crime. The U.S. is a developed nation which often relies on a formal state administered punitive crime control approach. Based on multivariate analyses, there were significant differences in views between Nigerian and U.S. college students in views on shaming for control crime, seeking revenge, showing mercy, and partnerships between the police and the community. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The ideological debate over the ability of involuntary programs to modify inmate behavior permeates the treatment literature. Ideology aside, research reveals that programs targeting high-risk offenders are most likely to reduce recidivism even though this group is the least likely to participate voluntarily. With the current economic environment and the continued disappearance of prevention/rehabilitation funding, it may be more cost-effective to target those who need it the most. Interviews were conducted with a sample of inmates involuntarily placed into a Cognitive Housing Approach: New Goals Environment (CHANGE) program as well as the staff who worked with the program. Responses from both inmates and staff support the use of involuntary programs for high risk populations. These qualitative results indicate that behavioral change was occurring for the majority of program participants despite being forced to participate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A small but growing body of research focuses on police officer turnover. Most of these studies are limited to measuring the experiences, views, and intentions of officers at one or a handful of agencies. Using the Law Enforcement Management and Administrative Statistics (LEMAS) national survey of police agencies and data on community factors, this study examined the effects of organizational and community variables on voluntary municipal police officer turnover rates at small, medium, and large departments. For small departments, pay incentives had a negative relationship with voluntary turnover, while violent crime rate and mean temperature for the area had positive relationships. For medium-sized agencies, only a measure of concentrated disadvantage had a positive relationship with voluntary turnover. Finally, for large departments, concentrated disadvantage, the county's suicide rate, and mean temperature for the area all had significant positive relationships, while the violent crime rate for the area had a negative association. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

While recent studies have demonstrated several negative effects of work-family conflict for correctional employees, none have examined the impact of work-family conflict on the organizational citizenship behaviors of correctional personnel. To help fill this gap in the research, this study examined the relationship between four types of work-family conflict and organizational citizenship behaviors for 160 correctional staff of a private Midwestern maximum security prison for juveniles adjudicated as adults. Based on the job demands model of person-environment fit theory, strain-based conflict, time-based conflict, behavior-based conflict, and family-on-work conflict were predicted to relate negatively with employee organizational citizenship behaviors. Results supported only two of the four predictions. While both strain-based conflict and family-on-work conflict were negatively associated with organizational citizenship behaviors, time-based conflict and behavior-based conflict had non-significant relationships. Discussion focuses on the comparative levels of strain produced by the different types of work-family conflict and ways that correctional agencies can minimize work-on-family conflict strain to enhance the organizational citizenship behaviors of their personnel. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The article discusses the relationship between the perceptions of organizational justice and job involvement among correctional staff of the U.S. It further discusses distributive justice and procedural justice as dimensions of organizational justice. It mentions that workplace unfairness perceptions can lead to psychological strain for the employees. Also discussed are how the work environment can affect the job stress, job satisfaction and staff's organizational commitment.

Stalking is a crime that can terrify its victims and ultimately take a severe emotional toll. Although a growing body of research has examined stalking experiences and reactions of victims, there has been far less research on whether men and women differ in their perceptions of stalking. Toward this end, a survey of college students at a large public 4-year Midwestern university was undertaken. We examined differences in how men and women view stalking and whether gender differences were moderated by prior stalking experience. Specifically, we examined whether there were gender differences in percep-tions of the pervasiveness of stalking, the harm stalking does, who tends to be stalked, if stalking mainly involves former relational partners, possible motivations for stalking, the line between courtship and stalking, and notions of victim blaming. We found significant differences in stalking views between men and women on all the measures, except for perceptions of the line between courtship and stalking. Women tended to perceive stalking as more pervasive and harmful. Men were more likely to perceive stalking as involving strangers and to blame the victim for the stalking. Female and male respondents also dif-fered in their perceptions of motivations for stalking. Prior victim stalking experience did not moderate the gender differences. Although being a prior stalking victim had a signifi-cant association with 4 of the 7 stalking perception variables, its effect sizes were smaller than that of gender. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Satisfied correctional officers are important for the successful operation of a prison. Hierarchical multiple regression analysis (HMR) was performed on survey data from 501 non-supervisory correctional officers employed in a Southern prison system. After controlling for factors such as demographic variables, role conflict, job stress, peer support, and supervisory support, correctional officers who perceived inmates as devious were less satisfied with their jobs; however, age and supervisory support positively influenced job satisfaction, whereas job dangerousness and role conflict negatively influenced job satisfaction. Although statistically significant, the association of perceptions of inmates on job satisfaction was small relative to the work environment. The results suggest that correctional administrators need to focus on the work environment, especially supervisory support, to improve correctional staff job satisfaction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents a study on the impact of strain and burnout on correctional employees in the U.S. The study suggests that burnout among correctional employers can lead to decreased work performance, reduced quality of interactions, and increased absenteeism. It defines burnout as a result of an imbalance of work forces, demands and resources, and results in a psychological strain for the worker.

There are two fundamental models used to explain the attitudes and behaviors of correctional staff The first is the Importation Model, which holds that work attitudes are primarily shaped by factors that employees bring with them to the workplace, and the second is the Work Environment Model, which holds that employee work attitudes are primarily shaped by dimensions of the work environment. Most of the correctional staff literature on job satisfaction and organizational commitment has supported the Work Environment Model but not the Importation Model; however, most of the research on the Importation Model has focused on demographic characteristics, which tend to be weak measures of imported factors. This study examined the impact of work ethic and importance of money as importation factors, and trust in management, participation in management, and support by management as work environment factors, on the job satisfaction and organizational commitment among staff at a private Midwestern correctional organization. The findings provide support for both models. Specifically, work ethic and trust in management had statistically significant effects on job satisfaction, while work ethic, trust in management, and participation in management had significant effects on organizational commitment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Working in a correctional institute is often a demanding and stressful job. This study examined the impact of job characteristics and job involvement on correctional staff job stress. Specifically, the effects of supervision, perceived dangerousness of the job, job variety, feedback, role stress, and job involvement were studied, while controlling for the effects of the personal characteristics of gender, educational level, race, age, and tenure. Using Ordinary Least Squared regression, it was observed that gender, age, perceived dangerousness of the job, feedback, role stress, and job involvement had statistically significant effects on correctional staff job stress. Tenure, educational level, race, supervision, and job variety had non-significant effects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article examines the issue of absenteeism and the views of absenteeism of correctional personnel. The author hypothesizes that job involvement, job satisfaction, organizational commitment, and job stress are related to absenteeism and views on the use of sick leave. In a survey of a Midwestern correctional facility staff members, the author concludes that correctional administrators need to take into serious consideration the issue of absenteeism and views towards it.

Over the last few decades, there has been a dramatic increase in the number of women entering the traditionally male-dominated field of corrections. During this time, researchers, using a variety of different methodological techniques, have attempted to disentangle the potential gender differences among correctional personnel. In building on this research, the following study surveyed correctional staff at a Midwestern high security state prison in the fall of 2000 in order to determine whether male and female correctional staff differed in their perceptions of the work environment, as well as their general attitudes toward their jobs. A total of 28 work environment indices were measured, including occupational attitudes not traditionally examined. Bivariate results indicated gender differences in perceptions of dangerousness, role ambiguity, role conflict, input into decision-making, job autonomy, supervision, punishment ideology, and job satisfaction; however, after controlling for age, race, education, position, tenure, and supervisory status, only dangerousness and job satisfaction remained statistically significant. The implications of these contemporary findings for correctional research and practice are also considered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The focus of this study is the examination of the views of Nigerian and U.S. college students regarding the death penalty and related issues. This exploratory undertaking seeks to answer three main questions. First, are there differences in the level of support of the death penalty between Nigerian and U.S. college students. The second objective of the study is to understand the reasons that the students provided for either supporting or opposing the death penalty. The third objective of this study is to account for the variance of support or opposition of the death penalty. The research findings show both similarities and differences in views regarding the death penalty between Nigerian and United States college students which we attribute to the differences between the social structure and culture of the two societies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Canada and the United States have often been compared because of the perceived notion that they are very similar. Further, the effectiveness and application of crime control policies in general, and the use of capital punishment in particular, have received a great deal of attention and garnered much debate in the past decade. This study explores the views of Canadian and U.S. college students toward capital punishment. Overall, the predictors for level of death penalty support were similar for the two groups; however, U.S. respondents were much more likely to support capital punishment. Additionally, Canadian respondents were significantly less likely to support the death penalty for the reasons of retribution, deterrence, incapacitation, and the instrumental perspective (i.e., law and order), while U.S. respondents were less likely to oppose capital punishment for the reasons of morality, the brutalization effect, or the risk of executing an innocent person. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During the past twenty years, there has been significant growth in the literature on correctional staff. Much of this literature has examined how the work environment helps shape the job satisfaction of correctional employees. Conversely, little empirical attention has been devoted to the broader concept of life satisfaction. The current study attempts to fill this empirical void by examining whether job satisfaction and occupational stressors (in the forms of job stress, work-family conflict, role stress, and perceived dangerous) had any impact on the life satisfaction of correctional staff Based on a multi-variate analysis, we find that job satisfaction, job stress, work-family conflict, and dangerousness had significant effects on life satisfaction. An additional analysis of the effects of life satisfaction revealed a significant relationship to workers' turnover intentions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Work in corrections is generally seen as a stressful occupation. There has been a fair amount of research to date on the possible cases of stress among correctional staff. Nevertheless, the issue of work-family conflict has not received much attention in the correctional literature. For the present article, a survey of correctional staff at a Midwestern prison was conducted in order to determine the effects of measures for educational level, gender, work position, race, and supervisory status. Four different forms of work-family conflict were extracted (time-based, strain-based, harm caused by, and family-on-work), and time-based and strain-based were found to be significantly related to personal characteristics. Specifically, correctional officers were impacted by work-family conflict more than other staff, as were staff who had less tenure mid those without a college degree. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents the outcome of a survey, of the staff at a county jail in Florida, to their attitudes, experiences and perceptions about civil liability. Throughout the past four decades, there have been numerous lawsuits against public safety officers for alleged wrongs committed during the course of their duties. Those who support a system of civil liability for criminal justice officials argue that lawsuits deter harmful behavior and provide needed compensation to victims of misconduct and negligence. Those who oppose civil liability for public safety agencies argue that the threat of lawsuits hampers the ability of employees to perform their duties, particularly during emergencies. Regarding this, few of the jail staff surveyed reported that they had ever been sued, and the vast majority of those who had been sued were supervisors. The likelihood of being sued increased with tenure. Slightly less than half of the jail staff believed that they had been adequately educated in civil liability or that their department would support them if they were sued in the performance of their duties. The survey found that half of the jail staff supported civil liability against public employees and agencies that harm or violate the civil rights of citizens. Most jail staff did not believe that threats of civil suits hindered their job performance. The study's findings have implications for jail administrations, particularly in terms of the need for staff training on civil liability and support the need for additional research on jail staff as well as for comparative research on jail staff and police attitudes toward civil liability.

The article focuses on a study that examines the problem of academic dishonesty. This study examined twenty different types of academic dishonesty as well as potential correlates of academic cheating by surveying 850 students at a Mid-western university. Also, the study attempts to broaden the understanding of academic dishonesty by finding which correlates were the strongest predictors of academic dishonesty with multi-variate analysis. Two interesting findings were noticed. First, the prevalence of academic dishonesty on a college campus is significantly influenced by how it is measured. Second, many of the bivariate associations reported in the literature were not found in the multi-variate analysis. It was concluded that despite a continued concern for ethical behavior and integrity, dishonesty still remains an endemic problem in the collegiate setting. Also, additional research using this multi-variate analysis at different academic institutions should determine whether the results obtained in this study were unique or whether it can be generalized to college students in general.