To Örebro University

oru.seÖrebro University Publications
Change search
CiteExportLink to record
Permanent link

Direct link
Cite
Citation style
  • apa
  • ieee
  • modern-language-association-8th-edition
  • vancouver
  • Other style
More styles
Language
  • de-DE
  • en-GB
  • en-US
  • fi-FI
  • nn-NO
  • nn-NB
  • sv-SE
  • Other locale
More languages
Output format
  • html
  • text
  • asciidoc
  • rtf
Swedish prison officers’ perceptions of management and support: key predictors and subgroups
Örebro University, School of Behavioural, Social and Legal Sciences.ORCID iD: 0000-0003-1054-9462
2024 (English)In: Psychology, Crime and Law, ISSN 1068-316X, E-ISSN 1477-2744, Vol. 30, no 10, p. 1277-1291Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Abstract [en]

With increasing numbers of prisoners, research on Swedish prison officers’ perceptions of management and support at work is warranted. Previous studies have mainly used a variable-centered approach, identifying several individual and organizational factors that influence prison staff's evaluation of their job. The present study adopted a person-centered approach, exploring the heterogeneity in a Swedish national sample of prison officers. Based on an extensive survey of the quality of prison job, 10 key predictors for overall prison regime evaluation were identified. Following latent class analysis, three distinct subgroups were discerned from the entire sample. Remarkably, a sizable subgroup with a relatively negative evaluation of the prison regime was observed. While most background covariates did not associate with the subgroup membership, prison officers who experienced violent or threatening incidents tended to report a negative evaluation of the prison regime. Intra-organizational social support, communication and loyalty are highlighted as key components of overall regime evaluation. Our findings suggest that enhancing collegial, management, and supervision support and communicative skills may increase prison officers’ job satisfaction. Beyond the organizational level of prisons, we also discussed the challenges that the Swedish prison system faces, along with the portrayal by social media of a violence-dominated environment.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
Taylor & Francis, 2024. Vol. 30, no 10, p. 1277-1291
Keywords [en]
Prison officer, Sweden, perception, management, job satisfaction
National Category
Other Legal Research Criminology Applied Psychology
Research subject
Criminology; Law; Psychology
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:oru:diva-104642DOI: 10.1080/1068316x.2023.2181962ISI: 000942245500001Scopus ID: 2-s2.0-85149411468OAI: oai:DiVA.org:oru-104642DiVA, id: diva2:1740777
Available from: 2023-03-02 Created: 2023-03-02 Last updated: 2025-02-20Bibliographically approved

Open Access in DiVA

No full text in DiVA

Other links

Publisher's full textScopus

Authority records

Zhao, XiangNylander, Per ÅkeBruhn, Anders

Search in DiVA

By author/editor
Zhao, XiangNylander, Per ÅkeBruhn, Anders
By organisation
School of Behavioural, Social and Legal Sciences
In the same journal
Psychology, Crime and Law
Other Legal ResearchCriminologyApplied Psychology

Search outside of DiVA

GoogleGoogle Scholar

doi
urn-nbn

Altmetric score

doi
urn-nbn
Total: 239 hits
CiteExportLink to record
Permanent link

Direct link
Cite
Citation style
  • apa
  • ieee
  • modern-language-association-8th-edition
  • vancouver
  • Other style
More styles
Language
  • de-DE
  • en-GB
  • en-US
  • fi-FI
  • nn-NO
  • nn-NB
  • sv-SE
  • Other locale
More languages
Output format
  • html
  • text
  • asciidoc
  • rtf