An empirical test of the social support paradigm on male inmate society

ABSTRACT

While social support theory has been applied to a variety of criminal justice settings, there has been little empirical research on the effect of social support on inmate behavior. In this article, we test Cullen’s proposition that social support, in whatever form it manifests itself, has an effect on Korean inmates’ experiences. Specifically, we examine whether social support in an all-male prison environment explains inmate misconduct, victimization, fear of victimization, and the intent to commit crime in the future. We build upon previous research by using unique measures of the instrumental and the expressive dimensions of social support to determine their effect on reducing criminogenic engagement in a prison setting. The results indicate that social support is an important factor in reducing prison violence, enhancing pro-social behavior, and potentially reducing recidivism.

KEYWORDS:

• Social support theory
• inmate misconduct
• victimization

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No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

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Notes on contributors

Youngki Woo

Youngki Woo is a PhD student in the Department of Criminal Justice and Criminology at Washington State University.

Mary K. Stohr

Mary K. Stohr is Professor in the Department of Criminal Justice and Criminology at Washington State University.

Craig Hemmens

Craig Hemmens is Chair and Professor in the Department of Criminal Justice and Criminology at Washington State University.

Faith Lutze

Faith Lutze is Professor in the Department of Criminal Justice and Criminology at Washington State University.

Zachary Hamilton

Zachary Hamilton is Professor in the Department of Criminal Justice and Criminology at Washington State University.

Ok-Kyung Yoon

Ok-Kyung Yoon is Professor at Kyonggi University, South Korea.