Service versus security concerns in contemporary jails: Testing general differences in training topic assessments

The evolving concept of the jail and the role of the correctional officers in that social institution dictates the need for some movement from security to service emphases in jail training. Moreover, some research suggests that female correctional staff may have more of a "service" orientation than males; however, the bulk of the criminal justice personnel literature indicates that job attitudes and assessments of correctional work tend to differ little by gender. In our analysis of a dataset drawn from a six-jail study, we investigate preferences for training (service vs. security) to see if they differ by gender. We find with these data that women correctional officers, in general, do not manifest a greater affinity for a service orientation in training types than their male counterparts.