Receiving visits in prison and aggressive and contraband misconduct among Dutch prisoners
| Published date | 01 July 2023 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/14773708211041016 |
| Author | Maria L. Berghuis,Miranda Sentse,Hanneke Palmen,Paul Nieuwbeerta |
| Date | 01 July 2023 |
Receiving visits in prison and
aggressive and contraband
misconduct among Dutch
prisoners
Maria L. Berghuis
Institute of Criminal Law & Criminology, Leiden University,
the Netherlands
Miranda Sentse
Institute of Criminal Law & Criminology, Leiden University,
the Netherlands
Hanneke Palmen
Institute of Criminal Law & Criminology, Leiden University,
the Netherlands
Paul Nieuwbeerta
Institute of Criminal Law & Criminology, Leiden University,
the Netherlands
Abstract
Although scholars have emphasised the implications of social support for in-prison behaviour, and
prison administrators worldwide use visitation as a correctional tool to manage prisoner behav-
iour, a few empirical studies have provided an articulate account of the visitation–misconduct rela-
tionship. This study expands research in this field by (a) addressing various features of visits, such
as whether, from whom and how often prisoners receive visits and (b) examining two specific
types of misconduct: aggressive and contraband. Using a combination of survey and administrative
data from 3885 Dutch prisoners, multilevel analyses were conducted. Receiving visits in prison is
associated with the higher probabilities of contraband misconduct, especially when partner or
Corresponding author:
Maria Berghuis, Institute of Criminal Law & Criminology, Leiden University, Steenschuur 25, 2311 ES Leiden,
the Netherlands.
Email: m.l.berghuis@law.leidenuniv.nl
Article
European Journal of Criminology
2023, Vol. 20(4) 1369–1389
© The Author(s) 2021
Article reuse guidelines:
sagepub.com/journals-permissions
DOI: 10.1177/14773708211041016
journals.sagepub.com/home/euc
friends visit. Receiving visits is, however, not significantly associated with aggressive misconduct,
but weekly visits from friends increased the likelihood of aggressive misconduct. Post hoc analyses
suggest that visits are particularly not associated with verbally aggressive behaviours, but they are
associated with lower likelihoods of physically aggressive behaviours. No significant associations
were found between child or family visits and any type of misconduct. Policy implications and sug-
gestions for future research are discussed.
Keywords
Visitation, misconduct, multilevel, prisons
Introduction
The acts of verbal and physical aggression and the presence of contraband, such as drugs
and weapons, in prison can pose a risk to safety, threaten the well-being of prisoners and
prison staff and adversely affect prison order (Bottoms, 1999). Scholars have proposed
that strengthening prisoners’social ties could mitigate these problems, as social
support may help prisoners adjust to incarceration and improve prisoner conduct
(Jiang et al., 2005). It is, therefore, not surprising to see that visitation is an important
part of prison programming worldwide. Prisons in several countries also use visitation
as a behavioural incentive to improve prison order (Boudin et al., 2014; Hutton,
2017). While there has been a recent surge of empirical work on the effects of visitation
using articulate measures (e.g. Casey et al., 2021; Cochran et al., 2020; McNeely and
Duwe, 2020), studies that have examined whether receiving visits is associated with pris-
oner misconduct have thus far yielded inconsistent findings. Some studies find that pris-
oners who receive visits engage in less misconduct (Ellis et al., 1974; Gonçalves et al.,
2016; Woo et al., 2016), while others report that they engage in more misconduct
(Benning and Lahm, 2016; Casey-Acevedo et al., 2004; Jiang et al., 2005; Lindsey
et al., 2017) and even others find no significant relationship between the two (Clark,
2001; Goetting and Howsen, 1986).
Before the existing literature on visitation and prisoner misconduct can be reviewed, it
is important to highlight that visitation is a heterogeneous experience, which may elicit
heterogeneous responses. Prisoners differ not only in whether they receive visits, but
also from whom and how often they receive visits.For instance, prisoners receive
visits from diverse relationships, ranging from romantic partners, child(ren), siblings,
grandparents to community workers. It is plausible that certain relationships may have
a greater effect on misconduct than others. In addition, while some visitors may visit
on a weekly basis, others only visit sporadically. Such differences may exert varying
influences on prisoners’behaviour. Although a substantial amount of research has
been done on the visit–misconduct relationship, far less is known about these features
(but see Cihan et al., 2020; Cochran, 2012; Siennick et al., 2013). Moreover, it is
unclear how these features relate to specific types of misconduct. It is possible that receiv-
ing frequent visits may reduce feelings of stress for prisoners, resulting in less verbal and
physical aggression in prison; however, receiving visits provides an opportunity to bring
in prohibited items (i.e. more contraband infractions). These possibilities are obscured in
prior research since studies typically use a global measure of prisoner misconduct.
1370 European Journal of Criminology 20(4)
To continue reading
Request your trial