Prisons as Schools of Crime ‐ a Myth Debunked?

Prisons have been considered ‘schools of crime’ (Walker, 1995) This study examines this notion in relation to burglary. Questionnaires and a burglary‐related task were completed by 31 participants in a category B prison. A correlational analysis was used to examine how knowledge of burglary‐specific cues and antecedents to crime might increase with time spent in prison. The effect of antecedents was also analysed with respect to the perceived burglary‐difficulty of a property. No changes were found with time for the specific cues (eg barriers to the property) but were present for one antecedent, self esteem (P<0.05), for the burglary group. An example of a predictor of perceived burglary‐difficulty was risk‐taking behaviour. The results are interpreted as indicating that prisons do not act as ‘schools of crime’. Future research possibilities are then discussed.