A systematic and meta-analytic review of the literature on correctional officers: Identifying new avenues for research

H. Daniel Butler, Melinda Tasca, Yan Zhang and Channing Carpenter

Journal of Criminal Justice, 2019, vol. 60, issue C, 84-92

Abstract: Scholarly interest in the experiences and behaviors of correctional officers has increased over the past several decades. Yet, considerably less is known about those who oversee and manage prison populations relative to other criminal justice professionals. In this study, we perform a systematic review and meta-analysis of 172 peer-reviewed articles published between 1980 and 2017 that include samples of correctional officers. The goal of this review is to “take stock” of the correctional officer literature in an effort to inform future research, policy, and practice. Specifically, we examine publication trends over the past several decades in addition to examining all outcomes across the included studies. We find that job satisfaction, job stress, and organizational commitment are the most frequently examined outcomes. Next, we examine the most commonly included correlates across each of these outcomes, which include age, female, white, education, experience, supervisor support, and peer support. Findings reveal that organizational factors such as supervisor support and peer support influence each of these outcomes, while demographic characteristics have mixed effects. Recommendations for future research include the need to examine other attitudes and experiences of correctional officers in addition to exploring variation in the effects examined in this review.

Keywords: Correctional officers; Systematic review; Meta-analysis; Job stress; Organizational commitment; Job satisfaction (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S004723521830312X
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:jcjust:v:60:y:2019:i:c:p:84-92

DOI: 10.1016/j.jcrimjus.2018.12.002

Access Statistics for this article

Journal of Criminal Justice is currently edited by Matthew DeLisi

More articles in Journal of Criminal Justice from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().