Inmate Lifestyles and Opportunities for Victimization

Inmate-on-inmate crime poses a serious threat to the goals of institutional corrections. Research to date on inmate victimization suggests that demographic and background characteristics (such as age and the seriousness of the offense incarcerated for) are important predictors of victimization risk during incarceration. Yet, the relative importance of demographics versus institutional lifestyles for predicting inmate victimization has never been examined. This article presents the results of a study designed to test the applicability of lifestyle theory to an understanding of victimization in correctional institution domains. Results support lifestyle theory as a viable explanation of victimizations involving physical assaults by other inmates as well as those involving theft of personal properties. The implications of these results are discussed.