The Impact of Security Placement on Female Offenders' Institutional Behavior

Abstract

It has been argued that institutional misconduct is promulgated by the correctional environments associated with different security levels. In this article, the authors summarize the results of a study examining whether such an association was present among Canadian federally sentenced female offenders. A total of 964 security reviews of federally sentenced women were analyzed to determine the independent effects of assessed risk (on the basis of individual-level factors) and security placement on institutional behavior. The analyses revealed that institutional behavior was related to assessed risk, after controlling for the effect of security placement. No relationship between security placement and misbehavior remained after controlling for assessed risk. Together, these findings suggest that although individual-level variables influence behavior, security placement does not. © The Author(s) 2009.