Citation

Ireland JL, Quinn K. Aggressive Behav. 2007; 33(1): 63-72.

Affiliation

Department of Psychology, University of Central Lancashire, Preston, Lancashire, UK. JLIreland1@uclan.ac.uk

Copyright

(Copyright © 2007, International Society for Research on Aggression, Publisher John Wiley and Sons)

DOI

10.1002/ab.20168

PMID

17441007

Abstract

PURPOSE: The aim of the current study was to explore attitudes towards self-harm in a sample of prison officers, with subsidiary aims of assessing if these attitudes alter as a function of the prisoner's behavior and the sex of the participant. METHOD: One hundred and sixty-two officers (100 men and 62 women) completed a general measure of their attitudes towards prisoners and one designed to assess Attitudes towards Prisoners who Self-Harm (APSH). Participants rated their perceptions of two adult male prisoners depicted in vignettes. The vignettes depicted identical types of self-harm but varied the behavioral characteristics of the prisoners involved, with one depicted as "well-behaved" and the other as "disruptive". RESULTS: Women were more likely than men to report positive attitudes towards self-harm and in particular were less likely than men to endorse negative myths regarding self-harm. The prisoner depicted as "disruptive" invoked increased negative attitudes than the "well-behaved" prisoner. This finding was consistent across sex. CONCLUSION: The current study indicates that APSH are comprised of a number of components that were influenced by the sex of the participant and the behavioral characteristics of the prisoners depicted. The implications of these findings to practice are discussed.

Language: en