Individual and institutional demographic and organizational climate correlates of perceived danger among federal correctional officers

Abstract

Correctional work is dangerous due to the volatile and often unpredictable environment in which individuals work. Although studied extensively in the policing literature, perceived danger has received far less empirical attention as an outcome in studies of correctional officers.The current work sought to extend earlier work in corrections by: learning whether views on this outcome varied across institutions; observing if specific factors proved relevant at both the officer and institutional levels; and learning, if a variable was relevant at both levels, if the direction and strength of its impact was similar across levels. Using a conceptual framework similar to that for studying fear of crime among residential populations, the current work sought to gauge the influence of the described predictors after controlling for perceptions of the risk of inmate assault. Multilevel models were applied to data from the 2001 to 2005 Federal Bureau of Prisons Prison Social Climate Survey administered yearly to all categories of correctional personnel in 114 institutions. These analyses used surveys from correctional officers (total n = 2,954; minimum n / year = 492) in 106 institutions. Results showed significant variation across institutions in average perceived danger. Demographic composition of officers mattered, as did their average views about different aspects of social climate, and their average perceptions of assault risk. After iv This document is a research report submitted to the U.S. Department of Justice. This report has not been published by the Department. Opinions or points of view expressed are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the official position or policies of the U.S. Department of Justice.controlling for all these factors, significant between-institution differences on average perceived danger remained. Several demographic variables influenced perceived danger in ways that paralleled the fear of crime literature. Female, African-American, andHispanic officers perceived more danger. Two features of perceived organizational climate were associated with less perceived danger. These impacts persisted after controlling for job stress and dissatisfaction at the respective levels.Results confirmed that individual differences in perceived danger strongly linked to both race and gender, even after controlling for job stress and dissatisfaction. Impacts of racial composition at the institutional level parallel impacts of individual officer race, demonstrating for the first time in the corrections literature such multilevel impacts of officer race and racial composition on perceived danger. The direction of officer gender impacts, however, varied depending on the level of analysis. v

An investigation into the risk perceptions held by maximum security correctional officers

“…Given the grave potential for harm found within prisons, and maximum-level facilities in particular, it is surprising that only a handful of authors have examined correctional officer perceived risk of injury (Alaird & Marquart, 2009;Dillon & Allwright, 2005;Garcia, 2008;Gordon et al, 2003Gordon et al, , 2013Grant, 2002;McIntyre et al, 1999). These studies differ not just in terms of their findings, but in regards to the different types of risk evaluated.…”

“…Garcia (2008), finally, evaluated a composite measure of correctional officer perceived danger. In the four studies that surveyed maximum security officers, either it was found that respondents perceived a high degree of danger within their respective institution (Garcia, 2008), or they perceived an elevated risk of contracting HIV/AIDS (Alaird & Marquart, 2009;Dillon & Allwright, 2005;McIntyre et al, 1999). All remaining studies that sampled low-level security officers or those employed in juvenile detention facilities (Gordon et al, 2003(Gordon et al, , 2013Grant, 2002) found that respondents reported relatively low levels of perceived risk.…”

“…Among them were gender, where females, irrespective of other factors, perceived significantly greater risk than their male counterparts (Garcia, 2008;Gordon et al, 2013), and age, where older officers were significantly less likely to perceive either risk of victimization or of contracting HIV (Alaird & Marquart, 2009;Gordon et al, 2013). Garcia's (2008) examination currently stands as the only empirical study to have examined whether certain officer work-related attitudes predicted their danger perceptions. These attitudes included officer ratings for co-worker acceptance, job satisfaction, role ambiguity and stress, with only the latter two sharing significant connections to officer danger perceptions.…”

“…Specifically, reduced role ambiguity negatively predicted danger perceptions, while increased stress displayed the opposite effect. Regarding role ambiguity, Garcia (2008) explained that when officers are well-informed of the dangers surrounding them within their work environment and of how to anticipate them, they will perceive less risk. This is because they may take additional precautions designed to handle any threats from dangers.…”

“…Heightened risk perceptions on behalf of correctional officers, according to Garcia (2008), can also elevate their stress and job dissatisfaction levels. These consequences, in turn, may engender hostile interactions between offenders and officers, thereby leading to the mismanagement of the inmate population (Gordon et al, 2003(Gordon et al, , 2013.…”