Self-legitimacy and use of force: a quantitative study of prison officers in Slovenia

ABSTRACT

The purpose of this paper is to explore self-legitimacy of prison officers and their willingness to use force against prisoners in Slovenian prisons. In 2016, 139 prison officers from all Slovenian prisons for men were surveyed. Results of OLS regression analysis revealed that relations with colleagues, supervisors’ procedural justice and age affect self-legitimacy of prison officers. Moreover, findings showed that self-legitimacy, supervisors’ procedural justice, years of service, and age influence the willingness of prison officers to use force. Positive perception of self-legitimacy had a positive impact on the willingness of prison officers to use force against prisoners. In conclusion, the interconnectivity between self-legitimacy of prison officers and their willingness to use force is discussed.

KEYWORDS:

• Prison officers
• prisons
• self-legitimacy
• use of force
• Slovenia

Notes

1. Due to the small sample of respondents from Ig prison for women (9 female prison officers and 1 male prison officer), they were excluded from further analyses.

2. Percentage in the brackets represent the proportion of surveyed prison officers employed in an individual prison.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Javna Agencija za Raziskovalno Dejavnost RS [J5-5548].

Notes on contributors

Gorazd Meško

Gorazd Meško is Professor of Criminology and Head of the Criminology Department at the Faculty of Criminal Justice and Security, University of Maribor, Slovenia.

Rok Hacin

Rok Hacin is Assistant Professor of Criminology at the Faculty of Criminal Justice and Security, University of Maribor, Slovenia.