Sensitivity for thee, but not for me: The role of social status as a conduit for white-collar prison adjustment

Abstract

The special sensitivity hypothesis asserts that the atypical background and personal characteristics of white-collar offenders may make them particularly susceptible to the “pains of imprisonment” while incarcerated. Using a national data set of U.S. prisoners, we evaluated symptoms of negative affect, misconduct, and various institutional outcomes among two distinct groups of white-collar offenders: those defined by their crime of exploiting specialized access for profit and those further defined by their status (i.e., employment, finances, and education). Findings indicated that the status-based offenders reported feeling significantly less worthless and that they were significantly more likely to have held a work assignment. However, the offense-based group was significantly less likely to have participated in educational programming and exhibited significantly worse negative affect—specifically nervousness, restlessness, and depression—suggesting they had greater difficulty adapting to prison life compared to others. We conclude by examining the implications for criminological theory and criminal justice policy.