Prisoners’ Coping Skills and Involvement in Serious Prison Misconduct

Abstract

Prison misconduct generates serious problems and costs in prisons across the United States. This study examined whether prisoners’ ways of coping affected their involvement in serious prison misconduct. The study also examined the traditional predictors of serious prison misconduct and their relationship to coping. The research included self-report surveys administered to a stratified random sample of 312 prisoners in medium- and maximum-security facilities as well as data extracted from the prison system’s database. Three of the eight ways of coping studied were directly related to serious misconduct along with several of the traditional predictors.