Abstract
Correctional officers (COs) perform a dual role within correctional institutions, simultaneously maintaining security and facilitating offender rehabilitation. In South Africa, this dual mandate is formalised and this positions COs as rehabilitative agents whose daily conduct can either facilitate or undermine rehabilitation. The quality of the CO–offender relationship is further identified as a central condition for effective correctional management and offender rehabilitation. COs’ attitudes toward offenders constitute a critical yet underexamined component of rehabilitative practice, given the centrality of attitudes to interpersonal relationships. At the same time, COs operate within high-risk correctional environments characterised by chronic exposure to potentially traumatic events (PTEs), both directly through experiencing or witnessing actual or threatened death, serious injury, or sexual violence, and indirectly through exposure to offenders’ narratives of victimisation and perpetration.
Although international research has documented elevated rates of trauma-related psychological outcomes among COs—most notably posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and to a lesser extent secondary traumatic stress (STS), compassion fatigue (CF), and vicarious trauma (VT)—no prior study, to the researcher’s knowledge, has empirically examined the association between adverse trauma-related outcomes and COs’ attitudes toward offenders. The aim of the present study was therefore to address this gap by examining whether adverse trauma-related psychological outcomes are associated with COs’ professional attitudes toward offenders. Guided by an integrated theoretical framework combining Carlson and Dalenberg’s (2000) conceptual framework for trauma response with the tripartite model of attitude formation (Rosenberg & Hovland, 1960), the study hypothesised that higher levels of PTSD, STS, VT, and CF would be negatively associated with attitudes toward offenders. In line with this aim, the study objectives were to examine COs’ direct and indirect exposure to PTEs, to determine the prevalence of trauma-related psychological outcomes, and to assess the relationship between these outcomes and attitudes toward offenders.
A quantitative, cross-sectional survey design was employed using a sample of 205 full-time correctional officers (COs) employed in Gauteng, South Africa (61.0% male; 39.0% female), following ethical approval. Data were collected via a paper-based survey at two correctional centers, while correctional officers from all centers across Gauteng were eligible to complete an online version of the survey. Direct and indirect PTE exposure was assessed using DSM-5–informed, custom-developed instruments, including the Work-Related Traumatic Events Questionnaire and Trauma Story ...