The self-legitimacy of prison staff in Slovenia

Abstract

This paper focuses on the self-legitimacy of prison staff in Slovenia. The primary aim of this study is to identify possible differences between those factors that influence the self-legitimacy of prison officers in different periods, which would confirm the applicability of some of the theoretical assumptions on the unstable nature of self-legitimacy. Possible differences between groups of prison workers will be explored. The results show that perceptions of supervisors’ procedural justice, relations with colleagues, audience legitimacy and age are the best predictors of self-legitimacy. These findings highlight the unstable nature of self-legitimacy and, moreover, the perceptions of self-legitimacy vary over time and in different groups of prison workers. The implications of these findings will be discussed.