Advancing Corrections Journal - Edition #20 - Scholarly Reflections on Core Considerations for Correctional Practice | Article 5 (ACJ20-A005)

Article 5: Inmate Subculture in Correctional Systems: The Evolution of a New Subculture Theory from a South African Perspective (ACJ20-A005) by Willem Luyt

https://doi.org/10.65264/MHLU9266

Abstract

This article explores a new development concerning inmate subculture in the form of the Exportation Theory. The South African correctional system has developed into an exporter of crime into society. There are several contributing factors ranging from poor staff policies, inmate developments, the role of technology, and Constitutional court decisions. Theorising about the new developments is not easy within the limited scope of this contribution. However, scientists and practitioners alike should take notice of the developments and the contribution it makes to best practices, or rather, in this case the absence of best practices. Gangsterism is central to the new theory and the poor role the criminal justice system plays in general, and corrections in particular, necessitates that new approaches should be considered. The article also calls for more research into the phenomenon.

Keywords: Exportation theory, inmate subculture, gangsterism, crime in correctional centres, deprivation theory, importation theory

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Author

Prof. Willem Luyt

Professor, University of South Africa, South Africa

An experienced academic whose career started in 1994, Willem Luyt has been a Professor in the College of Law at the University of South Africa since 2006. He has been a rated researcher of the National Research Foundation in South Africa for nearly two decades. He is experienced in academic management, research and research ethics, curriculum design, academic teaching and correctional industry training, as well as in open, distance and e-learning. Willem is equipped with intimate knowledge of the South African correctional system and the child-justice system, while he has vast international experience in criminal justice and both correctional and community-based systems. This includes various research visits and fact-finding missions to African countries, Europe and the United Kingdom, the United States, Australia, Lithuania, Russia, Argentina and Indian Ocean islands. He was a guest lecturer at the Polytechnic of Namibia and the Namibian University of Science and Technology (NUST) for more than a decade. Willem holds a DLitt et Phil from the University of South Africa (Unisa), a Teaching English as a Foreign Language Certificate from the TEFL Academy (UK) and a Research Ethics Certificate from the University of Hong Kong. He serves on the editorial boards of a number of international scholarly journals and served on the Research Ethics Committee of the South African Department of Correctional Services (DCS) for more than a decade.

Willem has published widely in national and international journals and is the author or co-author of several books and chapters in books on criminal justice, international corrections, child justice and unit management. In addition, he has delivered many papers at national and international conferences. He has been a promotor of PhD students and a supervisor for Master’s students over the years.

Advancing Corrections Journal - Edition #20 - Scholarly Reflections on Core Considerations for Correctional Practice | Article 5 (ACJ20-A005)

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