NCJ Number
235498
Journal
Journal of Offender Rehabilitation Volume: 50 Issue: 1-4 Dated: April 2011 Pages: 142-158
Date Published
2011
Length
17 pages
Annotation
This study explored the characteristics of world assumptions of prisoners and how these assumptions vary by ethnicity and age.
Abstract
In this study, the author explores world assumptions of prisoners, how these assumptions vary by ethnicity and age, and whether trauma history affects world assumptions. A random sample of young and old prisoners, matched for prison location, was drawn from the New Jersey Department of Corrections prison population. Age and ethnicity had significant effects on World Assumption Scale (WAS) scores, whereas trauma history did not impact WAS scores. Examining worldviews of prisoners may help determine maladaptive cognitive schemas that fuel possible self-defeating beliefs of themselves and the world, contributing to poor institutional adjustment and community reentry. (Published Abstract)