Look Who’s Talking: The Snitching Paradox in a Representative Sample of Prisoners

David C Pyrooz, Meghan M Mitchell, Richard K MouleJr and Scott H Decker

The British Journal of Criminology, 2021, vol. 61, issue 4, 1145-1167

Abstract: Snitching refers to conveying inside and potentially incriminating information about others to authorities. In contrast to prior criminological accounts of snitching, which rely on small and purposive samples, we used a probability sample of 802 male prisoners in Texas to study the status, prevalence, acceptability and correlates of snitching. We arrive at several key quantitative findings. First, snitches are positioned at the bottom of the inmate hierarchy. Second, snitching is a rare behaviour (7.6 per cent) and even rarer identity (1.8 per cent), consistent with a snitching paradox. Third, about three-fourths of respondents endorsed contingencies where snitching was permissible, primarily those involving personal ties, self-protection, or violence prevention. Finally, characteristics such as age, civic engagement, education, gang status, and arrest and imprisonment history were associated with either snitching identity, behaviour, or contingencies. Snitching is a persistent feature of social life, yet violates a sacred norm central to many criminological theories, necessitating continued inquiry into its content, enforcement and consequences.

Keywords: snitching; prison; convict code; norms; survey research (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://hdl.handle.net/10.1093/bjc/azaa103 (application/pdf)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

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:oup:crimin:v:61:y:2021:i:4:p:1145-1167.

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://academic.oup.com/journals

Access Statistics for this article

The British Journal of Criminology is currently edited by Eamonn Carrabine

More articles in The British Journal of Criminology from Centre for Crime and Justice Studies Oxford University Press, Great Clarendon Street, Oxford OX2 6DP, UK.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Oxford University Press ().