Comparisons of Inmates' and Staff's Judgments of the Severity of Offenses

Abstract

This paper is concerned with the following questions: (1) Are there any differences between the inmates and staff of a correc tional institution in their judgments of the severity of various offenses? (2) What is the extent of difference in severity ratings made by inmates during various stages of incarceration? (3) To what extent does an offender differ from staff and other inmates in judging the severity of his own offense? Three inmate groups and three staff groups completed a form measuring offense severity. They rated thirty-nine offenses on a 0- to 10-point scale. Inmates were divided into early, middle, and late phase groups for analysis, and staff groups were administrative, clinical, and correctional personnel. A total of 221 participants completed the scale—142 inmates and 79 staff members. Ratings on each offense were combined to give a median score for that offense. Offenses were then ranked from the most severe to the least severe for each group. Various tests were performed on these rankings to determine the extent of differences in rated severity. Results showed that there were no significant differences between in mates and staff of a correctional institution in their rank- ordering of offenses, although some differences in overall weight ing occurred (based on the means of each group's overall scale). Inmates who were in either the early or late phase of their institutional careers tended to see all offenses more severely; however, this varied with the type of offense. In the offense categories of narcotics and false pretenses (checks and forgery), there were significant differences between the ratings of the actual offender and the inmates and staff of the institution.