Perceived procedural justice and inmates’ psychological well‐being: The indirect effect of just world beliefs

Abstract

Purpose

Psychological well-being is critically important for inmates’ mental health and for the effectiveness of rehabilitation during incarceration. This study focuses on perceived procedural justice, which has been shown to have positive effects on institutional perceived legitimacy among inmates and on their self-views as a potential determinant of inmates’ psychological well-being. We also considered the role of two types of just world beliefs (personal and general) in this relationship.

Methods

A sample of 156 male inmates filled in measures of perceived procedural justice, just world beliefs and psychological well-being. The main data analyses also controlled the effects of age, education, criminal history and length of detention.

Results

Perceived procedural justice was associated with well-being, and general just world beliefs had a significant indirect effect in this relationship, indicating that inmates’ perceptions of institutional procedural fairness are related to stronger general just world beliefs, which are further linked to higher psychological well-being. Personal just world beliefs were not associated with wellbeing and did not exert a significant indirect effect on the relationship between procedural justice and well-being.

Conclusions

This pattern of findings suggests a mechanism via which perceiving fair treatment from penitentiary institutions supports inmates’ psychological well-being, namely by strengthening their beliefs that the world functions according to stable moral principles. These general beliefs provide a cognitive framework of meaning and predictability, important for inmates’ emotional self-regulation and adaptation to stressors in the carceral environment.