TY - JOUR
T1 - The erosion of authority and the perceived legitimacy of inmate social protest
T2 - A study of prison guards
AU - Hepburn, John
N1 - Funding Information:
Research for this paper was supportedi n part by National Institute of Justice Grant #80-NI-AX-0006.
PY - 1984
Y1 - 1984
N2 - The level of control exercised by guards over inmates, it has been argued, has decreased recently as a result of therapeutic, legal, and bureaucratic changes in American prisons. Feeling that inmates too often and too easily circumvent their authority, and that greater inmate rights pose a serious threat to their ability to maintain order, guards tend to discredit inmate complaints and to deny inmates the right to lawful social protest. Questionaire data are analyzed to examine (1) the extent and degree to which guards perceive as legitimate the various means by which inmates may protest unfair treatment by staff and (2) the relationship of this perceived legitimacy of inmate social protest to a variety of factors that prior research has isolated as important in understanding prison guards as an occupational group.
AB - The level of control exercised by guards over inmates, it has been argued, has decreased recently as a result of therapeutic, legal, and bureaucratic changes in American prisons. Feeling that inmates too often and too easily circumvent their authority, and that greater inmate rights pose a serious threat to their ability to maintain order, guards tend to discredit inmate complaints and to deny inmates the right to lawful social protest. Questionaire data are analyzed to examine (1) the extent and degree to which guards perceive as legitimate the various means by which inmates may protest unfair treatment by staff and (2) the relationship of this perceived legitimacy of inmate social protest to a variety of factors that prior research has isolated as important in understanding prison guards as an occupational group.
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U2 - 10.1016/0047-2352(84)90115-6
DO - 10.1016/0047-2352(84)90115-6
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:48749140897
SN - 0047-2352
VL - 12
SP - 579
EP - 590
JO - Journal of Criminal Justice
JF - Journal of Criminal Justice
IS - 6
ER -