Factors Influencing Residents’ Attitudes towards Correctional Facilities

The overcrowding and aging of correctional facilities must be seriously addressed in order to protect the human rights of prisoners and the safety of the public, and it is currently necessary to relocate existing facilities or build new ones every year in order for Korean correctional facilities to fulfil their role. However, new construction and relocation has not been carried out in a timely manner due to ongoing local opposition to the siting of correctional facilities. This study was conducted to investigate the attitudes of residents in neighborhoods without correctional facilities and to identify factors that influence their acceptance of correctional facilities. Specifically, based on the results of the literature review, the following variables were identified as factors that directly or indirectly influence residents' attitudes: local image damage, trust in government, need for facilities, and fear of crime. The relative magnitude of their influence was compared, and policy implications related to the siting of correctional facilities were suggested. The study found that residents' perceptions of a correctional facility being located in a neighborhood are negatively related to the perceived damage to the neighbourhood's image, and that higher perceptions of fear of crime are positively related to the perception of siting of a correctional facility. However, the more residents perceive the need for correctional facilities, the more negatively they perceive the community location of correctional facilities, which can be interpreted as a confirmation of the NIMBY phenomenon suggested by previous studies. And policy suggestions and limitations are presented.