Date of Award

Fall 12-14-2017

Degree Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Department

Criminal Justice

First Advisor

Dr. Leah E. Daigle

Second Advisor

Dr. Dean A. Dabney

Third Advisor

Dr. Shelley J. Listwan

Fourth Advisor

Dr. Brent E. Teasdale

Abstract

Before the 1970, there were approximately 196,000 offenders housed in prisons (Cahalan & Parsons, 1986). Today, more than one million offenders are housed in prison (Carson & Anderson, 2016). The increase in the size of the prison population has been, in part, attributed to the shift towards determinate sentencing. The prison boom fueled research that aimed at how inmates adapt to the depriving nature of prisons. Despite the vast amount of research on misconduct and victimization, there are still some gaps in the literature. Few researchers have examined how these policy shifts may have affected inmate adaptation and behavior while incarcerated. Second, the increase in time served in prison has resulted in inmates aging in prison, resulting in an increasing number of older inmates (age 50 and older) in prisons. The prison experiences of older inmates are still an understudied area. Finally, the literature shows that misconduct and victimization share numerous risk factors, yet the overlap has not been explored within the prison context. The current dissertation aims to extend the prison literature by using data from the Survey of Inmates in State and Federal Correctional Facilities series. The main findings are (1) inmates admitted to prison before 1980 had the highest rates of misconduct, (2) age differences exist in the risk factors of victimization and misconduct, and (3) the victim-offender overlap exists in prisons and the established risk factors of misconduct and victimization explain who is at risk of being a victim only, offender only, or a victim-offender.

DOI

https://doi.org/10.57709/10921748

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