Rethinking Our Approach to Understanding Violence in Carceral Institutions: A Call for Incorporating Public Management Perspectives

Abstract

Much of the empirical work on carceral violence has relied on importation and deprivation theories, with limited work focusing on associations with institutional management practices. To examine the extent to which these areas of opportunity exist in studying carceral violence, this paper employs a mapping review, assessing which factors tend to be most incorporated into empirical work on carceral violence. Results suggest that much of the literature is driven by individual-level, prison data in the US context, published in criminology journals, and seldomly controls for factors related to the staff and their engagement with or perceptions of incarcerated people. Empirical work on carceral violence may benefit from greater nuance and incorporation of public management perspectives to better mitigate carceral violence.