Prison Strains, Negative Emotions, and Deviance Among Prisoners in South Korea: A Latent-Variable Modeling Test of General Strain Theory

• Published date: 01 November 2020
• Author: Sung Joon Jang
• DOI: 10.1177/0306624X20928026
• Date: 01 November 2020
• Subject Matter: Articles

Original Manuscript

Prison Strains, Negative

Emotions, and Deviance

Among Prisoners in

South Korea: A Latent-

Variable Modeling

Test of General

Strain Theory

Sung Joon Jang

1

Abstract

This article examines the applicability of general strain theory to correctional sam-

ples by testing whether prison strains are positively related to deviance among

prisoners through strain-associated negative emotions and whether the negative

emotions-deviance relationship is systematic in terms of inner versus outer direct-

edness. Latent-variable structural equation modeling was applied to analyze survey

data from 986 male prisoners in South Korea. First, an inmate’s dissatisfaction

with correctional officers was found to be positively related to anger and fear of

victimization, whereas in-prison victimization was related only to the fear. Second,

outer-directed emotion (anger) was positively related to outer-directed deviance

(aggressive and property misconduct and anticipated reoffending) but not to inner-

directed deviance (self-injury/suicide attempt). On the contrary, inner-directed emo-

tion (fear) was related positively to the inner-directed deviance but inversely to

property misconduct. Finally, some of the indirect relationships of victimization

and dissatisfaction with deviance via negative emotions were found to be significa nt.

1

Baylor University, Waco, TX, USA

Corresponding Author:

Sung Joon Jang, Institute for Studies of Religion, Baylor University, One Bear Place #97236, Waco, TX

76798, USA.

Email: Sung_Joon_Jang@baylor.edu

International Journal of

Offender Therapy and

Comparative Criminology

2020, Vol. 64(15) 1607–1636

!The Author(s) 2020

Article reuse guidelines:

sagepub.com/journals-permissions

DOI: 10.1177/0306624X20928026

journals.sagepub.com/home/ijo

Keywords

general strain theory, prison strain, anger, fear of victimization, prison misconduct,

self-injury, suicide attempt, South Korea

Introduction

While Agnew’s (1992) general strain theory (GST) has been empirically estab-

lished as a leading theory of micro-criminology; its empirical support derives

mostly from research based on adolescent and young adult samples from the

general population (Agnew, 2006b). Despite an increase in GST research, rela-

tively lacking has been the application of GST to the criminal justice system.

This is unfortunate since individuals encountering the criminal justice system

regularly experience severe forms of strain and thus are at risk of engaging in

deviant coping (DeLisi, 2011). One obvious example is prisoners who live in a

“total institution” (Goffman, 1961), where they experience the “pains of impris-

onment” (Sykes, 1958) and are likely to react to prison strain by committing

infractions, whether outer-directed (e.g., violence) or inner-directed (e.g., sui-

cide) (Blevins et al., 2010), which have costly consequences (Tewksbury et al.,

2014; Torrey et al., 2010).

Prior research has applied GST to examine relationships of pre-prison and

post-prison as well as in-prison strains with infractions and reoffending among

offenders incarcerated and those released from prison. However, the previous

models often failed to include negative emotions, which GST posits mediate the

relationship (e.g., Leban et al., 2016; Listwan et al., 2013; N. L. Piquero &

Sealock, 2000). In addition, the models have rarely been tested using a latent-

variable modeling approach, which is appropriate to estimate relationships

among the key constructs of GST. To f‌ill these gaps in GST research on cor-

rectional samples, this article tests whether relationships between in-prison

strains (including experiencing victimization) and deviance (infractions and

the self-reported probability of reoffending) are mediated by negative emotions

(anger and fear of victimization) among prisoners. Also tested is whether the

negative emotions-deviance relationship is systematic in terms of inner-versus

outer-directedness. For these tests, this study analyzed survey data from a

sample of male prisoners in South Korea.

This article begins with a brief discussion of GST as related to this study

before reviewing prior research on the relationship between in-prison strain and

infractions and recidivism among offenders and its explanations. Then hypoth-

eses are introduced, followed by a description of the sample, measurement, and

analytic strategy. After presenting empirical results, theoretical and practical

implications of the f‌indings as well as suggestions for future research are

discussed.

1608 International Journal of Offender Therapy and Comparative Criminology 64(15)