IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/sagope/v3y2013i2p2158244013489695.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The Impact of Correctional Officer Perceptions of Inmates on Job Stress

Author

Listed:
  • Marcos Misis
  • Bitna Kim
  • Kelly Cheeseman
  • Nancy L. Hogan
  • Eric G. Lambert

Abstract

Research suggests that job-related stress affects correctional officers’ attitudes toward their work environment, coworkers, and supervisors, as well as their physical and mental health; however, very few studies have examined the relationship between stress and attitudes toward inmates. This study examined the relationship between correctional officers’ levels of stress and their perceptions of inmates by surveying a sample of 501 correctional officers employed by a Southern prison system. Hierarchical multiple regression analysis was used to test the principal hypothesis of this study—that more negative perceptions of inmates would result in higher levels of stress for correctional officers. Independent variables were grouped into four groups (demographic variables, supervisory support, job characteristics, and attitudes toward inmates) and were entered into the model in blocks. Lower supervisory support and perceptions of the job being dangerous were associated with higher levels of job stress. More importantly, correctional officers who saw inmates as intimidated (not arrogant) and nonmanipulative reported lower levels of job stress, while officers who perceived inmates as being unfriendly, antisocial, and cold reported higher levels of stress.

Suggested Citation

  • Marcos Misis & Bitna Kim & Kelly Cheeseman & Nancy L. Hogan & Eric G. Lambert, 2013. "The Impact of Correctional Officer Perceptions of Inmates on Job Stress," SAGE Open, , vol. 3(2), pages 21582440134, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:sagope:v:3:y:2013:i:2:p:2158244013489695
    DOI: 10.1177/2158244013489695
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/2158244013489695
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/2158244013489695?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Dowden, Craig & Tellier, Claude, 2004. "Predicting work-related stress in correctional officers: A meta-analysis," Journal of Criminal Justice, Elsevier, vol. 32(1), pages 31-47.
    2. Miller, Holly A. & Mire, Scott & Kim, Bitna, 2009. "Predictors of job satisfaction among police officers: Does personality matter?," Journal of Criminal Justice, Elsevier, vol. 37(5), pages 419-426, September.
    3. Cheek, Frances E. & Miller, Marie Di Stefano, 1983. "The experience of stress for correction officers: A double-bind theory of correctional stress," Journal of Criminal Justice, Elsevier, vol. 11(2), pages 105-120.
    4. Zupan, Linda L., 1986. "Gender-related differences in correctional officers' perceptions and attitudes," Journal of Criminal Justice, Elsevier, vol. 14(4), pages 349-361.
    5. Triplett, Ruth & Mullings, Janet L. & Scarborough, Kathryn E., 1996. "Work-related stress and coping among correctional officers: Implications from organizational literature," Journal of Criminal Justice, Elsevier, vol. 24(4), pages 291-308.
    6. Lambert, Eric, 2003. "The impact of organizational justice on correctional staff," Journal of Criminal Justice, Elsevier, vol. 31(2), pages 155-168.
    7. Farkas, Mary Ann, 1999. "Correctional officer attitudes toward inmates and working with inmates in a "get tough" era," Journal of Criminal Justice, Elsevier, vol. 27(6), pages 495-506.
    8. Triplett, Ruth & Mullings, Janet L. & Scarborough, Kathryn E., 1999. "Examining the effect of work-home conflict on work-related stress among correctional officers," Journal of Criminal Justice, Elsevier, vol. 27(4), pages 371-385, July.
    9. Griffin, Marie L., 2001. "Job satisfaction among detention officers: Assessing the relative contribution of organizational climate variables," Journal of Criminal Justice, Elsevier, vol. 29(3), pages 219-232.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Hassan Ashraf & Ahsen Maqsoom & Tayyab Tahir Jajja & Rana Faisal Tufail & Rashid Farooq & Muhammad Atiq Ur Rehman Tariq, 2022. "Error Management Climate and Job Stress in Project-Based Organizations: An Empirical Evidence from Pakistani Aircraft Manufacturing Industry," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(24), pages 1-18, December.
    2. Butler, H. Daniel & Tasca, Melinda & Zhang, Yan & Carpenter, Channing, 2019. "A systematic and meta-analytic review of the literature on correctional officers: Identifying new avenues for research," Journal of Criminal Justice, Elsevier, vol. 60(C), pages 84-92.
    3. Sheppard, Keller G. & Wilson, Michaela M. & Reddick, Lacey H. & Tucker, Garrett O. & Schwab, Ashley H., 2022. "Reducing staff burnout and turnover intentions in juvenile justice residential commitment programs: The promise of trauma-informed care," Journal of Criminal Justice, Elsevier, vol. 82(C).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Lambert, Eric G. & Hogan, Nancy L. & Griffin, Marie L., 2007. "The impact of distributive and procedural justice on correctional staff job stress, job satisfaction, and organizational commitment," Journal of Criminal Justice, Elsevier, vol. 35(6), pages 644-656, December.
    2. Lambert, Eric G. & Hogan, Nancy L. & Jiang, Shanhe & Elechi, O. Oko & Benjamin, Barbaranne & Morris, Angela & Laux, John M. & Dupuy, Paula, 2010. "The relationship among distributive and procedural justice and correctional life satisfaction, burnout, and turnover intent: An exploratory study," Journal of Criminal Justice, Elsevier, vol. 38(1), pages 7-16, January.
    3. Armstrong, Gaylene S. & Griffin, Marie L., 2004. "Does the job matter? Comparing correlates of stress among treatment and correctional staff in prisons," Journal of Criminal Justice, Elsevier, vol. 32(6), pages 577-592.
    4. Butler, H. Daniel & Tasca, Melinda & Zhang, Yan & Carpenter, Channing, 2019. "A systematic and meta-analytic review of the literature on correctional officers: Identifying new avenues for research," Journal of Criminal Justice, Elsevier, vol. 60(C), pages 84-92.
    5. Dial, Kelly Cheeseman & Downey, Ragan A. & Goodlin, Wendi Elizabeth, 2010. "The job in the joint: The impact of generation and gender on work stress in prison," Journal of Criminal Justice, Elsevier, vol. 38(4), pages 609-615, July.
    6. Lambert, Eric & Paoline III, Eugene A., 2010. "Take this job and shove it: An exploratory study of turnover intent among jail staff," Journal of Criminal Justice, Elsevier, vol. 38(2), pages 139-148, March.
    7. Moon, Byongook & Maxwell, Sheila Royo, 2004. "The sources and consequences of corrections officers' stress: A South Korean example," Journal of Criminal Justice, Elsevier, vol. 32(4), pages 359-370.
    8. Botha, Christo & Pienaar, Jaco, 2006. "South African correctional official occupational stress: The role of psychological strengths," Journal of Criminal Justice, Elsevier, vol. 34(1), pages 73-84.
    9. Dowden, Craig & Tellier, Claude, 2004. "Predicting work-related stress in correctional officers: A meta-analysis," Journal of Criminal Justice, Elsevier, vol. 32(1), pages 31-47.
    10. Griffin, Marie L. & Hepburn, John R., 2005. "Side-bets and reciprocity as determinants of organizational commitment among correctional officers," Journal of Criminal Justice, Elsevier, vol. 33(6), pages 611-625.
    11. López-Cabarcos, M. Ángeles & Vázquez-Rodríguez, Paula & Piñeiro-Chousa, Juan R., 2016. "Combined antecedents of prison employees' affective commitment using fsQCA," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 69(11), pages 5534-5539.
    12. Marvin Claybourn, 2011. "Relationships Between Moral Disengagement, Work Characteristics and Workplace Harassment," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 100(2), pages 283-301, May.
    13. Michelle Calvarese, 2015. "The Effect of Gender on Stress Factors: An Exploratory Study among University Students," Social Sciences, MDPI, vol. 4(4), pages 1-8, November.
    14. Katherine A. DeCelles & Michel Anteby, 2020. "Compassion in the Clink: When and How Human Services Workers Overcome Barriers to Care," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 31(6), pages 1408-1431, November.
    15. Reisig, Michael D. & Lovrich, Nicholas P., 1998. "Job attitudes among higher-custody state prison management personnel: a cross-sectional comparative assessment," Journal of Criminal Justice, Elsevier, vol. 26(3), pages 213-226, May.
    16. Justice Forman-Dolan & Claire Caggiano & Isabelle Anillo & Tom Dean Kennedy, 2022. "Burnout among Professionals Working in Corrections: A Two Stage Review," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(16), pages 1-25, August.
    17. Vuyokazi Magungxu & Philani Moyo, 2014. "Prisoner-warder ratio parity in a South African Correctional Centre: Repercussions on prison work environment and correctional security personnel," Journal of Economics and Behavioral Studies, AMH International, vol. 6(5), pages 411-417.
    18. Tomaževič, Nina & Seljak, Janko & Aristovnik, Aleksander, 2014. "The impact of CAF enablers on job satisfaction: the case of the Slovenian law enforcement agency," MPRA Paper 63938, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    19. Leonard Bright, 2022. "Why Does PSM Lead to Higher Work Stress? Exploring the Role that Organizational Identity Theory has on the Relationship between Public Service Motivation and External-Related Stress among Federal Gove," Public Organization Review, Springer, vol. 22(3), pages 803-820, September.
    20. Zafarullah Sahito & Pertti Vaisanen, 2017. "The Diagonal Model of Job Satisfaction and Motivation: Extracted from the Logical Comparison of Content and Process Theories," International Journal of Higher Education, Sciedu Press, vol. 6(3), pages 209-209, August.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:sagope:v:3:y:2013:i:2:p:2158244013489695. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.