Staff Beliefs About the Negotiation of Serious Prison Incidents

• Published in: Criminal justice and behavior Vol. 39; no. 1; pp. 59 - 70
• Main Authors: Walsh, Jennie L., Davies, Jason, Bagshaw, Ruth, Payne, Elizabeth
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Los Angeles, CA SAGE Publications 01.01.2012; SAGE PUBLICATIONS, INC
• Subjects: Attitudes; Belief & doubt; Convergent validity; Correctional personnel; Employee attitude; Negotiation; Negotiations; Positive thought; Prisoners; Prisons; Professional attitudes; Psychological tests; Psychometric properties; Quantitative psychology; prison officer attitudes; prison; crisis negotiation; critical incident
• ISSN: 0093-8548; 1552-3594
• DOI: 10.1177/0093854811426105

Negotiation forms an important part of the response to serious incidents in prison, yet staff attitudes toward negotiation have been subject to very little formal investigation. This article presents the first research into a new scale, the Beliefs About Negotiation Scale. Preliminary investigation suggests that the scale has promising psychometric properties. With respect to convergent validity, the scale has overlap with the Attitude Towards Prisoners Scale. Divergent validity was demonstrated through the more positive attitudes toward negotiation among negotiators and incident commanders, in comparison to tactical staff and general staff. The implications for these findings are considered.