1972/10/01 by Craig Haney, Curtis Banks, Philip G. Zimbardo · 4 citations
Social Sciences · Psychology · #Criminal Justice and Corrections Analysis #Psychopathy, Forensic Psychiatry, Sexual Offending #Crime Patterns and Interventions
paper · doi:10.21236/ad0751041
openalex publication_date 1972/10/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
Studies by psychologists in the field of 'corrections have generally focused on the psychological dispositions, personality traits, and attitudes of prisoners and guards, or on the relative efficacy of various treatment models and interventions on the inmates ' behavior within the walls of the institutions and their social and psychological functioning following their release. These studies have been primarily person centered, both in their search for a constellation of psychological characteristics that distinguish the criminal offender from other members of society and in their proposed solutions for correctional reform. Hence, in defining the problems of prisons in primarily dispositional and interpersonal terms, psychologists have tended to view prison reform programs as limited to attempts to rehabilitate the inmates, sensitize the guards, or foster a more amicable relationship between the two groups. Zimbardo and his associates (Haney, Banks, & Zimbardo, 1973; Zimbardo, Haney, Banks, & Jaffe, 1972, 1973a, 1973b) sought to challenge seriously this limited, if not distorted, approach to the study of imprisonment at a time when concern with the necessity of major institutional reforms in this field is at its highest among both the professionals and the concerned citizenry. The authors attempted to demonstrate that the social-structural, interpersonal, and psychological characteristics of prisons as such, rather than the individual dispositions of the guards or the inmates, are responsible for their failure as 1 The authors are grateful to Norman H. Berkowitz, Ramsay Liem, and Don Mixon for their helpful comments on an earlier draft of this article. Requests for reprints should be sent to Ali Banuazizi,