ABSTRACT
Prisons operating in the United States now confine over 1.5 million persons, and most of these prisons are understaffed and operate over designed capacities. Placing so many offenders in close physical proximity under the supervision of limited prison staff maximizes the convergence in time and space of persons more vulnerable to violent victimization and those more likely to commit violence given the opportunity. The study described in this book is about interpersonal violence perpetrated by inmates and experienced by inmates and/or staff. We apply a multilevel social control–opportunity theory to explain both offending and victimization, at both the individual (inmate/officer) and aggregate (facility) levels. Relative to other theories of inmate misconduct, this perspective contributes to a more reasonable explanation of why and how certain factors may affect prison violence. Using data for over 5,500 inmates and 1,800 officers within 46 prisons in Ohio and Kentucky, we examine the sources of both violent offending and victimization among prison inmates, and the individual- and prison-level influences on officer victimization. The models presented should be useful in pinpointing the strongest individual and facility effects on violence so as to inform corrections officials how they might develop practical methods for reducing the problem.
