Bibliography: leaves 251-260. / xi, 260 leaves ; 30 cm. / Title page, contents and abstract only. The complete thesis in print form is available from the University Library. / This thesis explores the prison experiences of female and male prisoners. The study aims to record and analyse the ways in which prisoners represent their experiences behind the wall (abstract) / Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Adelaide, Dept. of Social Inquiry, 1999

Examines the attitudes and perceptions among parolees, and police officers on why inmates join prison gangs, how powerful they are, and their power and control in prison. Data was gathered from 250 surveys distributed to a group of parolees at an undisclosed southern California municipal police department jail, and 250 surveys distributed to police managers attending the FBI National Academy in Quantico, Virginia. Results of this study validated the hypothesis that there is a significant difference in attitudes and perceptions of parolees and police officers of why inmates join prison gangs and the power and control gang inmates have in prison.

Male inmates incarcerated in a Federal Correctional Institution viewed one of two videotaped scenes which were presented as recordings of a classification team meeting held in another institution. The two videotapes were actually simulations identical in content except with respect to the presence or absence of a segment in which an inmate model was shown to receive social pressure from his unit manager to enroll in group psychotherapy. This social pressure constituted a threat to the model's freedom to refuse therapy enrollment. It was predicted that observers of the freedom-threat tape would experience observation inductive reactance which would result in their desiring a greater amount of choice about group therapy enrollment at the same time that they would derogate the value of group therapy for themselves. Subjects also completed semantic differential profiles of the unit manager, inmate model, and themselves, allowing a test of predictions that the freedomthreatening unit manager would be rated as negative, potent, and active, while the threatened model would be seen as positive, less potent, and inactive. An optional boring task was presented to subjects to determine whether the freedomthreat observers would show a heightened tendency to refuse the task in order to indirectly reassert their freedom. It was also predicted that subjects with a history of frequent rules infractions would respond more strongly to the modeled freedom threat than would subjects with fewer infractions. The predictions regarding increased choice salience and increased derogation of group therapy for freedom-threat observers were supported by the data analysis. As anticipated, the unit manager was rated as negative and potent inthe freedom threat scene, while the threatened model was perceived as less potent than when he was viewed in the no-threat scene. An unexpected finding showed the model also to be evaluated as negative in the freedom-threat condition. Activity ratings of the unit manager and model did not differ significantly between threat/no threat observation conditions. Compliance rates on the boring task were too minimal in both conditions to permit a test of the indirect restoration of freedom hypothesis; this manipulation was therefore regarded as a failure. The study found only one effect for the individual-differences variable of prior rules infractions: subjects with a high number of infractions showed a greater tendency to negatively evaluate the freedom-threatened model. The results in general provide support for the theory that psychological reactance can be aroused by merely observing a threat to the freedom of a similar other. The negative evaluations of the model provided by freedomthreat observers may however, indicate that perceived similarity between the personal characteristics of the model and observer is not necessary in order for the effect to occur. Instead, the model's role, as similar to that of the observer, may be more important. It was suggested that cognitive consistency processes may need to be invoked in explaining the freedom-threat observers' derogation of group therapy. / Ph. D.

This study was undertaken to examine possible relationships among sex-role types, self-concept, and length of incarceration in residents at a federal minimum security co-correctional prison. Twelve female and 53 male subjects completed the Zung Self-rating Depression Scale, StateTrait Anxiety Scale, Bern Sex-Role Inventory, Marlowe-Crowne Social Desirability Scale, Self-Concept Scale, and a Reaction to Imprisonment Q-sort. MMPI scores and demographic data for each subject were obtained from institution records. Subjects were divided into three groups (New, N = 25; Three Month, N = 20; and One Year, N = 20) on the basis of the length of time they had been incarcerated. Those in the New group were retested with all instruments except the MMPI after they had been imprisoned approximately three months. Instruments were administered only once to the other groups. On the basis of scores on the Bern Sex-Role Inventory, subjects were classified by sex—role type (masculine, feminine, androgynous, or undifferentiated). Discriminant function analyses were used as an initial screen to determine which of the dependent variables might contribute to the "simple effects" factors of the main multivariate analysis of variance procedure.

This thesis examines the attitudes and rehabilitative potential of female inmates in a California state women's prison.

Crime is as old as mankind. It started with an incident of theft inside Paradise and a murder outside. In order to understand the phenomenon of crime several theories were formulated over time. One fact should be recognized: All forms of trauma can be reduced to a single common factor: Control – or better said: a lack of control. A lack of personal control causes tension; tension leads to desperation; desperation leads to irresponsibility. Then the door to crime is unlocked. Fortunately all irresponsibilities doesn’t lead to crime. In order to understand the offender it is imperative to understand his background. The relationship between childhood trauma and crime cannot be denied. It is a fact that childhood traumas can lead to abnormal brain development in early childhood. For this reason special attention is paid to the processes involved in brain development, both in normal children and in maltreated ones. If not identified and intervened in time, it can lead to a situation where the cycle of frustration and desperation, and eventually crime, cannot be interrupted - not even by prisonization. Management of change (rehabilitation) must reckon with the influence of said traumas on the brain development of children. Efforts to rehabilitate the offender becomes senseless if applied for an hour once a week. Such efforts cannot repair the damage done by negative influences repeated thousands of times over many years. In the same vein it is fruitless to aim therapeutic interventions on the reason of man hoping to repair the emotional damage of his childhood. For this reason the Neurosequential Method of Therapeutics holds promise in the quest for the rehabilitation of the offender and in the fight against crime. / Penology / D. Litt. et Phil. (Penology)

Crime is as old as mankind. It started with an incident of theft inside Paradise and a murder outside. In order to understand the phenomenon of crime several theories were formulated over time. One fact should be recognized: All forms of trauma can be reduced to a single common factor: Control – or better said: a lack of control. A lack of personal control causes tension; tension leads to desperation; desperation leads to irresponsibility. Then the door to crime is unlocked. Fortunately all irresponsibilities doesn’t lead to crime. In order to understand the offender it is imperative to understand his background. The relationship between childhood trauma and crime cannot be denied. It is a fact that childhood traumas can lead to abnormal brain development in early childhood. For this reason special attention is paid to the processes involved in brain development, both in normal children and in maltreated ones. If not identified and intervened in time, it can lead to a situation where the cycle of frustration and desperation, and eventually crime, cannot be interrupted - not even by prisonization. Management of change (rehabilitation) must reckon with the influence of said traumas on the brain development of children. Efforts to rehabilitate the offender becomes senseless if applied for an hour once a week. Such efforts cannot repair the damage done by negative influences repeated thousands of times over many years. In the same vein it is fruitless to aim therapeutic interventions on the reason of man hoping to repair the emotional damage of his childhood. For this reason the Neurosequential Method of Therapeutics holds promise in the quest for the rehabilitation of the offender and in the fight against crime. / Penology / D. Litt. et Phil. (Penology)