Prisons are a fertile environment for staff wrongdoing to thrive. Wrongdoing includes a wide range of behaviours, from criminal acts to violations of the professional standards set by the Prison Service. Staff wrongdoing has the potential to create chaotic and unstable work environments, contribute to a culture of unprofessional behaviour, destroy trust between staff and prisoners and erode public trust in the legitimacy of prisons to hold offenders in a safe and secure place. However, little academic research has been conducted on this important subject globally and none in the United Kingdom.
This article is based on the literature which underpinned the first independent research into prison staff wrongdoing in England and Wales. The study focussed on increasing the knowledge of how prison staff wrongdoing is understood by the staff themselves, what the staff think makes someone vulnerable to wrongdoing and the perceived barriers to reporting wrongdoing. Given the paucity of relevant research, it was necessary to draw on the wider literature which form some of the jigsaw pieces to provide a clearer picture of why prison staff engage in wrongdoing.
