Transforming prison culture: supportive norms enhance prison officers’ well-being and prosociality toward detained people
October 06th, 2025
In the article “Transforming prison culture: supportive norms enhance prison officers’ well-being and prosociality toward detained people”, published in the Journal of Criminal Psychology (Vol. 15, No. 7, 2025), Marco Marinucci, Iolanda Tortù, Teresa Traversa, Luca Pancani, and Paolo Riva examine how social norms within prison culture shape the psychological and professional well-being of prison officers. Drawing on a large-scale study of more than one thousand Italian officers, the authors show that promoting norms oriented toward supporting and reintegrating inmates encourages prosocial attitudes and less conflictual relationships, with positive effects on workplace climate and staff well-being. The article offers new perspectives for designing interventions that can transform prisons into more humane institutions, safeguarding both the rights of incarcerated people and the well-being of staff.
The article is freely available on the journal’s website here.