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Patterns of Prisoner Misconduct - Toward a Behavioral Test of Prisonization

NCJ Number
89035
Journal
Sociological Focus Volume: 16 Issue: 2 Dated: (April 1983) Pages: 129-146
Author(s)
I L Barak-Glantz
Date Published
1983
Length
18 pages
Annotation
Based upon data gathered on (N = 306) prisoners in a large northwestern state maximum security prison the author identifies intra-prison misconduct as a significant variable that sheds some light on the many aspects of prisonization.
Abstract
Four patterns of misconduct are highlighted (Incidental/Accidental, 'Early Starter,' 'Late Bloomer,' 'Chronic'), and their respective linkages with prisonization are explored. Theory and research in sociology of prison life and prisonization, particularly Clemmer and Wheeler and their followers, focused mostly on the normative aspects of these processes and concepts, giving rise to two prominent conceptions: the functional and importation models of adaption to prison life. Behavioral measures were relatively neglected. This paper reviews in detail these two paradigms and their basic premises, and proposes a new direction for prisonization study, namely the focus upon behavioral measures of the prisoners' acculturation to life within the prison community. (Publisher abstract)