Skip to Main Content
 

Global Search Box

 
 
 
 

Files

File List


41634.pdf (3.89 MB)

ETD Abstract Container

Abstract Header

Hacks or Heroes? Public Perceptions of Correctional Officers

Burton, Alexander
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ucin1649761546279291

Abstract Details

2022, PhD, University of Cincinnati, Education, Criminal Justice, and Human Services: Criminal Justice.
Each day, approximately 420,000 correctional officers go to work in our nation’s carceral institutions. The reliance on mass incarceration as the foremost public policy to combat crime has led to this large workforce, which within the criminal justice system is second in size only to the police. In contrast to policing that largely takes place in public, much of a correctional officer’s work is in private, within the confines of prisons where it is invisible to the citizenry. As a result, the media largely dictates how correctional officers are portrayed to the public, in the form of movies, television shows, and newspaper stories. These accounts often portray correctional officers negatively, as “hacks.” Notably, little is known about how the public perceives the correctional officer occupation. This omission is salient given the size of the correctional officer workforce and the important function they serve in guarding society’s most dangerous members. By contrast, a voluminous literature exists that examines public perceptions toward the police on a variety of issues, such as confidence in them, use of force, importance to society, and occupational prestige. The current study seeks to fill this void in the research. Thus, this dissertation presents primary data from a 2022 national survey of 1,000 U.S. adults conducted by YouGov, an opt-in internet panel survey company. The survey instrument measured public perceptions toward 16 outcomes, including the respondents’: views of officers (“hacks” or “heroes”); ratings of occupational status; preferred role for officers (custody or treatment); perceived value (salary, importance of, confidence in); and acceptance of officers’ use of force and support for reducing misconduct in the occupation. This dissertation also attempts to explain the variation in perceptions toward correctional officers. Based on prior research, five theoretical models are examined: the racial model, correctional attitudes model, political model, crime/danger model, and prison contact model. The analysis revealed several broad findings. First, the public does not view correctional officers as hacks. In fact, many see their work as heroic and their occupation as having prestige higher than other occupations with similar educational requirements. The public tends to endorse officers assuming a treatment-oriented role and being important assets in the rehabilitation of inmates. Much of the sample viewed force as something that should be used only in select circumstances. Variations in perceptions were largely based on correctional attitudes (e.g., punitiveness), political psychology (e.g., the care/harm domain), and views toward the dangerousness of prison work. This dissertation presents data showing that the American public clearly favors correctional officers embodying a treatment provider role. The future of corrections needs to exemplify this purpose, seeking not only to ensure order but also to create a humane environment in which officers are trained and encouraged to improve those they supervise. As the public understands, officers choose to enter the confined and dangerous space of the prison where most strive to be heroes and not hacks.
J.C. Barnes, Ph.D. (Committee Member)
Paula Smith, Ph.D. (Committee Member)
Cheryl Lero Jonson, Ph.D. (Committee Member)
Francis Cullen, Ph.D. (Committee Member)
234 p.
Criminology
Correctional Officers; Public Opinion; Corrections; Prisons

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Burton, A. (2022). Hacks or Heroes? Public Perceptions of Correctional Officers [Doctoral dissertation, University of Cincinnati]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ucin1649761546279291

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Burton, Alexander. Hacks or Heroes? Public Perceptions of Correctional Officers. 2022. University of Cincinnati, Doctoral dissertation. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ucin1649761546279291.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Burton, Alexander. "Hacks or Heroes? Public Perceptions of Correctional Officers." Doctoral dissertation, University of Cincinnati, 2022. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ucin1649761546279291

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

ucin1649761546279291
309
© 2022, some rights reserved.Creative Commons License Hacks or Heroes? Public Perceptions of Correctional Officers by Alexander Burton is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License. Based on a work at etd.ohiolink.edu.
This open access ETD is published by University of Cincinnati and OhioLINK.
Release 3.2.12