Adapting prison surveys to different cultural settings: Challenges and lessons

Cross-cultural prison research is a growing field, and it is increasingly common for researchers to adapt existing instruments to new contexts to quantitatively evaluate prison climate. Yet, comparative penology remains an underdeveloped field, and there have been limited efforts to contextualize adaptations of prison-based instruments. Various obstacles arise when adapting validated prison-based surveys to diverse cultural settings. Drawing on the Measuring the Quality of Prison Life (MQPL) survey, this study examines these challenges and provides a framework for prison researchers seeking to adapt survey instruments to varied sociocultural contexts. We carried out a systematic search of studies that have used the MQPL survey and conducted interviews with nine researchers and practitioners who adapted the instrument in eight different countries. We identified four adaptation challenges related to linguistic, measurement, contextual, and worldview differences. Findings highlight the importance of regarding translation as cultural mediation, improving measurement through qualitative methods, adapting the scales to fit their new cultural setting, and thoroughly testing for survey reliability. The paper discusses the implications of these observations for future cross-cultural prison research and for the field of comparative penology more broadly defined.