The dark figure of prison violence in Uruguay: an exploratory mixed-method study
Prisons are concerned with safety. One key piece of information is how much violence takes place in prison. This is important from a micro perspective – will this new inmate be at risk of victimization? And from a macro one too – are more resources needed in a prison to reduce the potential for viol...
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| Format: | Print Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
2024
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| In: |
The crime data handbook
Year: 2024, Pages: 273-287 |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
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| Summary: | Prisons are concerned with safety. One key piece of information is how much violence takes place in prison. This is important from a micro perspective – will this new inmate be at risk of victimization? And from a macro one too – are more resources needed in a prison to reduce the potential for violence? Yet our knowledge about the ‘dark figure’ of prison violence is limited by the nature of the act and our ability to research it. We use a mixed-methods project in the Penitentiary Unit 4 (Uruguay) that combines: official records of prison incidents; survey data in a convenience sample of inmates (n=209); qualitative interviews with inmates, prison staff and key informants (n=33); and non-participant unstructured and structured observation. Our findings show that in two months only 12 violent incidents were officially recorded, compared to 82 incidents recorded in our observations. Of the total inmates that answered our survey (42 per cent of the module), 60 per cent were victimized but only 22 per cent of victims reported to authorities. Reasons for not reporting were not wanting to break prison codes, fear of retaliation, lack of trust in the prison system and the perception of lack of punishment. Under-reporting was also associated with institutional conditions related to lack of resources, irrelevance of reporting in guard role, lack of trust in the importance of reporting, poor knowledge of how to report and ‘naturalization’ of violence. We finish by discussing the limitations of our study, and making suggestions for estimation of dark figure and policy implications. |
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| Item Description: | Literaturverzeichnis: Seite 284-287 |
| Physical Description: | Illustrationen |
| ISBN: | 9781529232042 |