The influence of delegitimization on prison officers’ readiness to use force

Abstract

This study aims to enrich the existing literature on prison officers by examining how various work-related variables influence their readiness to use force—an area that remains relatively underexplored. Specifically, it focuses on officers’ institutional delegitimization, their perception of insecurity at work, their professional orientation, the quality of their relationships with prisoners, and some indicators of what they feel during their work, namely perceived satisfaction, self-efficacy, and emotions. The study was conducted in Italy and involved 684 male and 130 female prison officers, who completed a questionnaire made up of 46 questions, grouped into seven dimensions. A Structural Equation Model (SEM) was employed to evaluate the robustness of a model describing the relationships among the seven dimensions in light of the collected data. The model tested was built on seven exogenous variables and six endogenous variables, with a total of 24 estimated parameters. Among the variables analyzed, institutional delegitimization was found to have the largest total effect—both directly and indirectly—on prison officers’ readiness to use force. This finding suggests that while interventions aimed at shaping officers’ attitudes toward the use of force should consider all the dimensions examined, particular emphasis should be placed on fostering an institutional environment that strengthens legitimacy.