Fear of infectious diseases and perceived contagion risk count as an occupational health and safety hazard: Accounts from correctional officer recruits in Canada
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Media type:
E-Article
Title:
Fear of infectious diseases and perceived contagion risk count as an occupational health and safety hazard: Accounts from correctional officer recruits in Canada
Published in:
Journal of Criminology, 55 (2022) 1, Seite 47-64
Language:
English
DOI:
10.1177/26338076211058250
ISSN:
2633-8076;
2633-8084
Origination:
Footnote:
Description:
Prisons are poorly ventilated confined spaces with limited physical distancing opportunities, making an environment conducive to the spread of infectious diseases. Based on empirical research with correctional officer recruits in Canada, we analyze the reasons and sources of fear, and the measures that recruits adopt to counter their fear of contagion. Our study marks an advance in the correctional work literature, which, to date, has tended to view perceived contagion risks as a workplace challenge that can be overcome with occupational skill and experience. In contrast with the existing literature, we present fear and perceived contagion risk as an “operational stress injury” that affects all correctional officers; a structural occupational health and safety problem that needs redressing from the labor policy perspective.