‘Doing’ Coercion in Male Custodial Settings : An Ethnography of Italian Prison Officers Using Force

This book offers a sustained study of on one feature of a prison officer’s job: ‘doing’ coercion. Adopting an interactionist perspective, the book presents research based on one-and-a-half-years of participant observation within an Italian custodial complex hosting both a prison and forensic psychiatric hospital, together with visual methods and interviews with staff. With a focus on the lawful, yet problematic and discretional threatening and ''doing’ of coercion this volume contributes to the growing scholarly debate on power in a prison setting and the developing field of the micro-sociology of violence and of radical interactionism.

This book offers a sustained study of one feature of the prison officer’s job: the threat and use of force, which the author calls ‘doing’ coercion. Adopting an interactionist, micro-sociological perspective, the author presents new research based on almost two years of participant observation within an Italian custodial complex hosting both a prison and a forensic psychiatric hospital.

Based on observation of emergency squad interventions during so-called ‘critical events’, together with visual methods and interviews with staff, ‘Doing’ Coercion in Male Custodial Settings constitutes an ethnographic exploration of both the organisation and the implicit and explicit practices of threatening and/or ‘doing’ coercion. With a focus on the lawful yet problematic and discretionary threatening and ''doing’ of coercion performed daily on the landing, the author contributes to the growing scholarly literature on power in prison settings, and the developing field of the micro-sociology of violence and of radical interactionism.

As such, it will appeal to scholars of sociology, anthropology and criminology with interests in prisons, power and violence in institutions, and visual methods.