In this compelling study of machismo in Mexico City, Matthew Gutmann overturns many stereotypes of male culture in Mexico and offers a sensitive and often surprising look at how Mexican men see themselves, parent their children, relate to women, and talk about sex. This tenth anniversary edition features a new preface that updates the stories of the book's key protagonists.

The Meanings of Macho: Being a Man in Mexico City.

Analyzing data from a semi-ethnographic study in a Ukrainian medium-security prison for men, I discuss how officers and prisoners negotiate order to produce a manageable, stable, predictable, peaceful and relatively habitable prison environment. Broadening the debate about power and order by introducing a case study from a non-'Western' context, I argue that prisoners and officers, apart from utilitarian compromises, also employ moral reasoning in their power negotiations. I demonstrate that in the context of prison's radical deficit in legitimacy, exacerbated by a corrupt, under-reformed, post-totalitarian state, non-conformity with legal norms might be more legitimate than legal conformity.

Compromised Power and Negotiated Order in a Ukrainian Prison

The article sets out to show how power and identity intertwine. Its close look at Ukrainian prison culture complements a recent string of studies in the “West” by demonstrating the nuanced role of ...

Do Men in Prison Have Nothing to Lose but Their Manhood? Masculinities of Prisoners and Officers in a Ukrainian Correctional Colony:

Although prison order rarely rests on naked force, its availability defines a prison. A penological truism holds that officers’ deployment of force signals a breakdown in order, not normality. Howe...

https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/0032885518814728

The Legal and Illegal Use of Force by Prison Officers in Ukraine

Desistance from crime has been of increasing interest within criminal justice literature, but desistance from offending behaviour whilst in custodial environments has not yet been investigated. Violence within prison establishments continues to be a significant problem, therefore this study investigated the factors that are associated with desistance from custodial violence in 63 UK Category C adult male prisoners with a record of violence in prison. Participants completed measures of eight social and subjective factors associated with desistance in community samples. Those who had desisted from prison violence for 12 months or more showed greater levels of pro-social attitudes, agency and resilience than those who persisted in violence. Agency independently predicted desistance and this was particularly the case for younger offenders. Internal shifts appeared to be supported by a positive work environment. It is concluded that in custody an internal shift in perspective is especially important for desistance, and that this can be supported by the social environment. Opportunities to intervene may be greater in younger prisoners. It is recommended that current initiatives in developing agency and positive social interaction, such as Psychologically Informed Planned Environments, are further developed.

/pdf/factors-associated-with-desistance-from-violence-in-prison-kl0mu8sa8a.pdf

Factors associated with desistance from violence in prison: an exploratory study

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/pdf/our-violence-and-theirs-comparing-prison-realities-58447f9390.pdf

Our Violence and Theirs: Comparing Prison Realities

Severe conditions of imprisonment have contributed to a rise in the frequency and seriousness of unrest in Greek prisons over recent decades. Drawing on fieldwork material collected in the largest and most overcrowded prison for men in Greece, this article explores how prison authorities used the prospect of temporary release as a means of incentivizing conformist behavior among prisoners. It is argued that the effectiveness of this seemingly straightforward mechanism was complicated by practical restrictions on the granting of temporary release, thus leading to 'behaviorist' efforts on the part of prison authorities to transfer the incentivizing properties of temporary release itself onto praise they extended to prisoners for observing institutional rules and regulations. The content of such praise entailed references to the ideal of a tamed masculinity embodied in the traditional Greek notion of philotimo, or honor, a finding that bolsters the limited body of research on the pacifying potential of masculine identities in carceral settings. While, and at least in part because, the gains made for order through this process have at best been transitory, the broader politico-economic functions of imprisonment have persisted.

Leonidas K. Cheliotis

Papers

Our Violence and Theirs: Comparing Prison Realities

Order through Honor: Masculinity and the Use of Temporary Release in a Greek Prison