Eric G. Lambert

An Exploratory Study of Organizational Justice and Work Attitudes Among Chinese Prison Staff

While both forms of organizational justice are important, the empirical literature indicates that procedural justice generally has wider and greater effects on job attitudes compared with distributive justice. Regression analysis of self-reported survey data from 322 staff at two Chinese prisons in Guangzhou suggests that, while both forms of organizational justice were important for Chinese correctional staff’s organizational commitment, distributive (but not procedural) justice had significant positive associations with both job involvement and job satisfaction. This emphasis on distributive justice differs from what has been empirically found for U.S. correctional staff.

A Happy Life: Exploring How Job Stress, Job Involvement, and Job Satisfaction Are Related to the Life Satisfaction of Chinese Prison Staff

Working in prisons is a demanding career. While a growing number of studies have explored the predictors of job stress, job involvement, and job satisfaction, very few studies have examined how job stress, job involvement, and job satisfaction effect prison staff life satisfaction. Moreover, past studies on prison staff life satisfaction have all been conducted among those working in the United States. The current study examined how job stress, job involvement and job satisfaction were associated with satisfaction with life among surveyed staff at two Chinese prisons. Job involvement and job satisfaction had positive effects on life satisfaction, while job stress had a negative effect.

Predictors of Death Penalty Views in China: An Empirical Comparison Between College Students and Citizens:

China’s current Criminal Law has 46 death-eligible offenses, and China executes more people than any other country in the world. However, there is a lack of study of attitudes toward capital punishment for specific offenses, and no death penalty view comparison between college students and regular citizens in China was found. This study was taken to address these limitations. Using a sample of 401 respondents from Zhejiang, China, in 2016, the present study found that more than 72% of respondents favored the death penalty without any specification of crime types. Level of death penalty support differed by various specific crimes. As expected, relative to college students, general population citizens were more likely to support capital punishment. Both groups had the highest death penalty support for murder. The study also revealed similar and different reasons behind death penalty attitudes between college students and regular citizens.

I Can’t Get No Satisfaction! An Examination of Correctional Officers’ Perceptions of Staff–Inmate Boundary Violations and Willingness to Follow Institutional Rules within the Texas Department of Criminal Justice

ABSTRACT Most correctional officers adhere to strong organizational norms that emphasize the importance of following rules. Some, however, break the custodial frame and behave inappropriately with inmates. Guided by Robert K. Merton’s social structure and anomie theory, we examined 501 questionnaires collected from correctional officers within the Texas Department of Criminal Justice. When correctional officers perceive that their coworkers engage in boundary violations with inmates, job satisfaction is significantly lower. Our novel application of Merton’s framework makes a contribution to the correctional job satisfaction literature and has important implications for the contemporary development and significance of social structure and anomie theory.

The Effects of the Workplace on Jail Staff: The Issue of Perceptions of Pay Fairness

ABSTRACT Drawing from person–environment fit theory, the current study adds to recent empirical inquires that have considered how workplace factors affect jail staff. In doing so, the focus is on how perceptions of pay fairness effect the job stress, job involvement, and organizational commitment of jail personnel. Utilizing survey data from a large county correctional system in Orlando, Florida, the results of multivariate analyses reveal that staff that hold more favorable perceptions of pay fairness are more involved in their jobs and more committed to the overall organization. The implications of these findings for correctional research and practice are considered.

Examining the Relationship between Job Characteristics and Job Satisfaction among Southern Prison Staff

ABSTRACT The job characteristics model was used to explain job satisfaction at a large southern prison. The effects of job variety, role clarity, views of supervision, views of training, perceived dangerousness of the job, and job autonomy on job satisfaction were studied. Using data from 322 staff members, the study found positive job characteristics (i.e., job variety, supervision, training, and lower perceived dangerousness of job) were associated with greater job satisfaction. Job autonomy was non-significant. Job variety, quality of supervision, and training views were positively associated with job satisfaction for all staff and security officers, whereas dangerousness of job was negatively associated. Role clarity mattered for all staff, but not security officers. Reasons for both significant and non-significant relationships were discussed.

Reasons for South Korean attitudes towards the death penalty: exploring the nexus between strong public support and history of misapplication

ABSTRACT As of this writing, South Korea (officially, the Republic of Korea) is an abolitionist-in-practice nation; capital punishment is legal, but no death sentences have been carried out since a moratorium was enacted in 1997. Public support for the death penalty has decreased over time; however, the factors that determine support for or opposition to the death penalty of the South Korean general public are largely unknown. Using survey data from a nationwide sample of 416 respondents, this study examined the potential predictors for public attitudes towards capital punishment support. A majority of survey respondents (83%) supported the death penalty, a higher percentage than recent surveys of the South Korean general public. The deterrence and retribution perspectives were positively related to death penalty support, while crime severity, neighbourhood safety, the brutalisation effect, and innocence were negatively related. This study provides the first multivariate analysis of factors associated with South Korean attitudes towards the death penalty.