Causes and correlates of prison inmate misconduct: A systematic review of the evidence Benjamin Steiner ⁎, H. Daniel Butler, Jared M. Ellison School of Criminology and Criminal Justice, University of Nebraska, Omaha, 6001 Dodge Street, 218 CPACS, Omaha, NE 68182-0149 abstract article info Available online 21 September 2014 Purpose: Inmate rule violations or “misconducts” reflect offending within a prison, and this study involved a sys- tematic review of studies of the causes/correlates of inmate misconduct published between 1980 and 2013. Methods: An exhaustive search of relevant high impact journals yielded 98 studies of causes/correlates of inmates misconduct published between 1980 and 2013. The final models from these studies were examined to assess the impact of the predictor variables on misconduct. Results: Findings revealed that predictor variables reflecting inmates’ background characteristics (e.g., age, prior record), their institutional routines and experiences (e.g., prior misconducts), and prison characteristics (e.g., security level) all impact misconduct. Conclusions: Researchers should apply general theories of crime and deviance (e.g., control) that can incorporate all of the empirically relevant inmate and prison characteristics to the study of offending in prison (misconduct). Researchers should also examine the sources of variability in the effects of predictor variables across studies. © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Contents Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 462 Theoretical explanations of misconduct . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 463 Deprivation theory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 463 Importation theory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 463 Management perspectives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 464 General theories of crime and deviance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 464 Current study . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 464 Methods . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 465 Findings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 465 Background characteristics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 465 Institutional routines and experiences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 466 Prison characteristics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 466 Discussion and conclusions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 467 References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 468 Introduction The formal rules of inmate conduct govern and regulate behavior within a prison. Deviations from the rules or “misconducts” reflect offending in prison (DiIulio, 1987; Eichenthal & Jacobs, 1991; Irwin, 2005; Wooldredge, 1994). Inmates who commit misconduct are also more likely to exhibit continuity in offending upon release (Trulson, DeLisi, & Marquart, 2011). Thus, scientific inquiry concerning the sources of inmate misconduct can improve our understanding of the in- fluences of criminality among high risk offenders and shed light on whether imprisonment, or the interventions that occur within prisons (e.g., vocational programs), are effective at initiating desistance from offending. Institutional safety and order are also evaluated in part by the level of inmate misconduct within a prison, and identifying the sources of inmate misconduct can aid correctional administrators Journal of Criminal Justice 42 (2014) 462–470 ⁎ Corresponding author. Tel.: +1 402 554 4057. E-mail address: bmsteinerb@unomaha.edu (B. Steiner). http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jcrimjus.2014.08.001 0047-2352/© 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Journal of Criminal Justice