That Doesn’t Leave You’

Psychological Dirt and Taint in Prison Officers’ Occupational Cultures and Identities

Datos Bibliográficos

ID8400933
AutoresJoe Garrihy (0000-0002-6588-747X, National University of Ireland, Maynooth, autor de correspondencia)
Año2022
Volumen62
Número4
Páginas982-999
Fecha de publicación2022-06-17
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessSí
TipoARTICLE
RevistaThe British Journal of Criminology (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 0007-0955 • E-ISSN: 1464-3529
EditorialOxford University Press (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1093/bjc/azab074
OpenAlexW3192948495
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas19
Referencias citadas44

This article examines the conceptualization of prison officers as psychologically ‘dirty’. It defines the novel ‘psychological taint’ and taint management strategies in their occupational cultures. Drawing on ethnographic data, psychological taint’s three sources are identified as the psychological processes necessary to do their job, contamination through association with groups stigmatized as mentally unwell, and the pernicious effects of prison work. The article analyses the relationship between unaddressed anxiety provoked in prison work and the amplified salience of external threat in psychological taint. While advancing studies of occupational cultures and identities, psychological taint offers a constructive lens to analyse occupations across multiple fields. The presented implications address the nature of prison workplaces, punishment and the provision of mental health supports

Conceptualization · Criminology · Harm · Mental health · Prison · Psychiatry · Computer Science · Criminal Justice and Corrections Analysis · Policing Practices and Perceptions · Psychology · Psychopathy, Forensic Psychiatry, Sexual Offending · Social Psychology