THE IMPACT OF IMPRISONMENT ON SELECTED ATTITUDES OF RECIDIVISTS AND FIRST OFFENDERS.

The article presents a study which investigates the impact of the prison experience on attitudes toward the legal establishment and attitudes regarding aggression. A study was made of attitudes regarding law and aggression held by recidivists and first offenders institutionalized one week and one year. Only in terms of their lowered guilt scores did inmates institutionalized one year differ significantly from those institutionalized one week. Recidivists differed significantly from first offenders in terms of less favorable attitudes toward law and law enforcement and attitudes connoting greater negativism toward others. Recidivists also tended to be more suspicious, more prone to assaultiveness and to feel less guilt.