hrvatski

Distress, shame, and guilt in offenders

Most prisoners are exposed to numerous stressors and they experience elevated levels of distress. However, it is still underexplored how coping strategies relate to chronic and offence-related distress and responsibility in offenders. Moreover, previous studies yielded mixed findings regarding the relationship between distress and responsibility and different types of offences (i.e. violent or non-violent). Therefore, the aims of this study were to explore the relationship between coping strategies and distress and responsibility in offenders, and differences in distress, responsibility and coping strategies between offence-types. The research was conducted on a convenience sample of 674 adult prisoners from all penal institutions in the Republic of Croatia. Participants were divided into three offence types, depending on their self-reported current conviction: violent offenders (N=214), non-violent offenders (N=342), and mixed offenders (N=75). Chronic and offence-related distress and denial of responsibility in offenders weremeasured by Distress and Responsibility Scale (Xuereb, Ireland, & Davies, 2009), while coping strategies were measured with The Coping Strategies Inventory –short form (Addison et al., 2007). The results showed that offenders were generally more prone todisengagement strategies (avoidance) than to engagement strategies (confronting) when dealing with stressors (t(670)=2.86 ; p<.001), regardless of the offence type (F(4, 1250)=.57. p=.68). After controlling for social desirability, statistically significantdifferences were found in chronic-distress and low self-worth (F(2, 581)=5.57, p=.004) and chronic responsibility and self-blame (F(2, 581)=4.25 ; p=.015), where non-violent offenders showed less chronic-distress and lower self-worth than violent offenders, and less chronic responsibility and self-blame than violent and mixed offenders. Finally, participation in disengagement as well as engagement stress-coping strategies were positively related to chronic-distress and low self-worth, and chronic responsibility and self-blame, but also to offence specific distress and rejection, as well as acknowledging responsibility for committed offence.

shame ; guilt ; offenders ; responsibility ; coping strategies

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