The intersection of societal and psychological justice—people's reaction to corrective justice within the criminal justice system—provides a unique opportunity to understand more about how one's perception of justice relates to adaptive psychological functioning. In this study we explore the associations between the belief in a just world for the self (BJW-self), power, wellbeing, optimism, resilience, and psychological distress to establish whether the empowering effect of BJW-self functions to promote mental health similarly for prisoners and non-prisoners alike. Data was collected from a sample of female prisoners (n = 72) and a gender-, age-, and ethnicity-matched sample from the general population (n = 80). Path analysis indicated similar associations between BJW-self, power, and mental health for both prisoners and non-prisoners. Prisoners reported higher levels of psychological distress, but also higher levels of resilience compared to non-prisoners. The implications of our findings for the application of justice motive theory to those in incarceration and insight into the measurement of mental health in prisons is discussed.

社会和心理正义的交集（人们对刑事司法系统中的矫正正义的反应）提供了一个难得的机会，可以更多地了解人们对正义的看法与适应性心理功能之间的关系。在这项研究中，我们探索对自我的正义世界（BJW-self）的信念，力量，福祉，乐观，弹性和心理困扰之间的联系，以确定BJW-self的赋权作用是否同样起到促进心理健康的作用。对于囚犯和非囚犯都一样。数据收集自女性囚犯样本（n  = 72）和来自一般人群的性别，年龄和种族匹配样本（n = 80）。路径分析表明，囚犯和非囚犯的BJW自我，能力和心理健康之间存在相似的关联。与非囚犯相比，囚犯的心理困扰水平更高，但复原力也更高。讨论了我们的发现对将司法动机理论应用于监禁者的意义，并深入了解了监狱中的心理健康状况。