Investigation of individual inmates' characteristics are almost entirely absent from research of prison riots. The current study sought to fill this void using official infraction records and prison dossiers of 831 male inmates selected from the southwestern USA. Logistic regression models indicated that inmates who were cited for criminal infractions, such as theft, possession of weapons or drugs, threatening staff, and social risk factors were significantly more likely to engage in prison rioting. In fact, the model which contained criminal career, demographic information, infraction, and other social risk factors explained 40% of the variation in prison rioting. Suggestions for research on prison riots that included inmates' criminal history and characteristics of infraction are offered.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
AcornL. R. (1991) Camp Hill riots lead to Pennsylvania DOC overhaul. Corrections Today, 53, 72–74.
2.
BachmanR.PaternosterR. (1997) Statistical methods for criminology and criminal justice. New York: McGraw-Hill.
3.
BerkR. A.LaddH.GrazianoH.BaekJ. (2003) A randomized experiment testing inmate classification systems. Criminology & Public Policy, 2, 215–242.
4.
BottomsA. E. (1999) Interpersonal violence and social order in prisons. Crime and Justice, 24, 205–281.
5.
CampS. D.GaesG. G. (2005) Criminogenic effects of the prison environment on inmate behavior: some experimental evidence. Crime and Delinquency, 51, 425–442.
6.
CampS. D.GaesG. G.LanganN. P.SaylorW. G. (2003) The influence of prisons on inmate misconduct: a multilevel investigation. Justice Quarterly, 20, 501–534.
7.
CaoL.ZhaoJ.Van DineS. (1997) Prison disciplinary tickets: a test of the deprivation and importation models. Journal of Criminal Justice, 25, 103–113.
8.
ClemmerD. (1940) The prison community. New York: Holt, Rinehart, & Winston.
9.
ColvinM. (1992) The penitentiary in crisis: from accommodation to riot in New Mexico. Albany, NY: SUNY Albany Press.
10.
DiIulioI. J. (1987) Governing prisons: a comparative study of correctional management. New York: Free Press.
11.
DeLisiM. (2003) Criminal careers behind bars. Behavioral Sciences and the haw, 21, 653–669.
12.
DeLisiM. (2005) Career criminals in society. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
13.
DeLisiM.BergM. T.HochstetlerA. (2004) Gang members, career criminals, and prison violence: further specification of the importation model of inmate behavior. Criminal Justice Studies, 17, 369–383.
14.
FlanaganT. J. (1980) Time served and institutional misconduct: patterns of involvement in disciplinary infractions among long-term and short-term inmates. Journal of Criminal Justice, 8, 357–367.
15.
FlanaganT. J. (1983) Correlates of institutional misconduct among state prisoners: a research note. Criminology, 21, 29–39.
16.
FleisherM. S.DeckerS. H. (2001) An overview of the challenge of prison gangs. Corrections Management Quarterly, 5, 1–9.
17.
GaesG. G.WallaceS.GilmanE.Klein-SaffranJ.SuppaS. (2002) The influence of prison gang affiliation on violence and other prison misconduct. Prison Journal, 82, 359–385.
18.
GendreauP.GogginC. E.LawM. A. (1997) Predicting prison misconducts. Criminal Justice and Behavior, 24, 414–431.
19.
GoettingA.HowsenR. M. (1986) Correlates of prisoner misconduct. Journal of Quantitative Criminology, 2, 49–67.
20.
GoldstoneJ. A. (2001) Toward a fourth generation of revolutionary theory. Annual Review of Political Science, 4, 139–187.
21.
GoldstoneJ. A.UseemB. (1999) Prison riots as micro-revolutions: an extension of state-centered theories of revolution. American Journal of Sociology, 104, 985–1029.
22.
HarerM. D.SteffensmeierD. J. (1996) Race and prison violence. Criminology, 34, 323–351.
23.
HaynerN. S.AshE. (1940) The prison as a community. American Sociological Review, 5, 577–583.
24.
HochstetlerA.DeLisiM. (2005) Importation, deprivation, and varieties of serving time: an integrated-lifestyle-exposure model of prison offending. Journal of Criminal justice, 33, 257–266.
25.
HomantR. J.WitkowskiM. J. (2003) Prison deviance as a predictor of general deviance: some correlational evidence from Project GANGMILL. Journal of Gang Research, 10, 65–75.
26.
HuebnerB. M. (2003) Administrative determinants of inmate violence: a multilevel analysis. Journal of Criminal justice, 31, 107–117.
27.
IrwinJ.CresseyD. R. (1962) Thieves, convicts and the inmate culture. Social Problems, 10, 142–155.
28.
LovellD.JemelkaR. (1996) When inmates misbehave: the costs of discipline. Prison Journal, 76, 165–179.
29.
MacDonaldJ. M. (1999) Violence and drug use in juvenile institutions. Journal of Criminal Justice, 27, 33–44.
30.
McCorkleR. C.MietheT. D.DrassK. A. (1995) The roots of prison violence: a test of deprivation, management, and ‘no-so-total’ institution models. Crime and Delinquency, 41, 317–331.
31.
ReisigM. D. (1998) Rates of disorder in higher-custody state prisons: a comparative analysis of managerial practices. Crime and Delinquency, 44, 229–244.
32.
SchragC. (1954) Leadership among prison inmates. American Sociological Review, 19, 37–42.
33.
StephanJ. J.KarbergJ. C. (2003) Census of state and federal correctional facilities, 2000. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Justice Programs, Bureau of Justice Statistics.
34.
SykesG. M. (1958) The society of captives: a study of a maximum security prison. Princeton, NJ: Princeton Univer. Press.
35.
UseemB. (1985) Disorganization and the New Mexico Prison Riot of 1980. American Sociological Review, 50, 677–688.
36.
UseemB.GoldstoneJ. A. (2002) Forging social order and its breakdown: riot and reform in U.S. prisons. American Sociological Review, 67, 499–525.
37.
UseemB.KimballP. A. (1989) States of siege: U.S. prison riots, 1971-1996. New York: Oxford Univer. Press.
38.
UseemB.ReisigM. D. (1999) Collective action in prisons: protests, disturbances, and riots. Criminology, 37, 735–760.
39.
WangE. W.DiamondP. M. (1999) Empirically identifying factors related to violence risk in corrections. Behavioral Sciences and the Law, 17, 377–389.
40.
WheelerS. (1961) Socialization in correctional communities. American Sociological Review, 26, 697–712.
41.
WooldredgeJ. D. (1991) Correlates of deviant behavior among inmates of U.S. correctional facilities. Journal of Crime and Justice, 14, 1–25.
42.
WooldredgeJ. D. (1994) Inmate crime and victimization in a southwestern correctional facility. Journal of Criminal Justice, 22, 367–381.
43.
WooldredgeJ. D.GriffinT.PrattT. C. (2001) The relevance of hierarchical models for empirical study of inmate behavior. Justice Quarterly, 18, 901–929.
44.
ZambleE. (1992) Behavior and adaptation in long-term prison inmates: descriptive longitudinal results. Criminal justice and Behavior, 19, 409–425.
