Reputational inmate leaders: Some comparative contact patterns

A small number of studies have presented data on the sociolegal correlates of inmate leadership. These studies have based their results on traditional designs of data collection, including official records and interview questionnaires. The literature has not captured reciprocal contact patterns between inmate leaders and followers, nor has research addressed the question of how leaders differ from nonleader inmates on behavioral dynamics. This article presents the results of a videotaping procedure which captures leader contact patterns in task-related decision making. The general findings support the behavioral leadership studies performed on noninmate populations and suggest that leadership is a transcendental quality which cannot be explained by the functional model of inmate subculture.