20.500.12556/DKUM-96568 Self-legitimacy of prison workers a comparative study in Slovenian prisons Building legitimacy in a coercive prison environment presents a significant challenge for prisonworkers. Drawing on data from a survey of 465 Slovenian prison workers collected in 2016and 2022, this study aims to test the stability of prison workers’ sense of self-legitimacy, asprior research strongly suggests that the nature of such legitimacy is fundamentally unstable.Multivariate analyses showed that relationships with prisoners and the internalisation of subcul-tural norms influenced the self-legitimacy of prison workers in both periods studied.Relationships with colleagues, satisfaction with pay, and with workplace conditions also influencedprison workers’ self-legitimacy in 2016, and education and years of service proved salient in 2022.Results indicate that traditional ‘core variables’ (relationships with colleagues, supervisors’ proced-ural justice, and audience legitimacy) used to explore legitimacy in criminal justice have limitedinfluence on prison workers’ self-legitimacy. Significant differences were also found in prisonworkers’ perceptions of self-legitimacy, audience legitimacy, and prison staff subculture in differenttime periods. Overall, the findings reported here suggest that the self-legitimacy of prison workersis relatively unstable over time. The implications of these findings for both theory and practice areexplored. comparative study prison workers relationships self-legitimacy Slovenia zaporski delavci samozaznava legitimnosti true true true Angleški jezik Slovenski jezik Slovenija; Znanstveno delo 2026-01-19 16:19:26 2026-01-19 16:19:26 2026-01-20 03:14:59 0000-00-00 00:00:00 2025 0 0 str. 51-75 iss. 1 Vol. 22 Jan. 2025 0000-00-00 Zaloznikova Objavljeno NiDoloceno 0000-00-00 0000-00-00 2024-07-21 343.8 202387971 10.1177/14773708241255843 1741-2609 https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/14773708241255843 1 3c49e5f3-f54a-11f0-94a4-00155d580e02 https://dk.um.si/Dokument.php?lang=slv&id=202206 Fakulteta za varnostne vede 0 0 0