This article examines the conceptualization of prison officers as psychologically ‘dirty’. It defines the novel ‘psychological taint’ and taint management strategies in their occupational cultures. Drawing on ethnographic data, psychological taint’s three sources are identified as the psychological processes necessary to do their job, contamination through association with groups stigmatized as mentally unwell, and the pernicious effects of prison work. The article analyses the relationship between unaddressed anxiety provoked in prison work and the amplified salience of external threat in psychological taint. While advancing studies of occupational cultures and identities, psychological taint offers a constructive lens to analyse occupations across multiple fields. The presented implications address the nature of prison workplaces, punishment and the provision of mental health supports.

中文翻译：

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“那不会离开你”：监狱官员职业文化和身份中的心理污垢和污点

本文考察了监狱官员在心理上“肮脏”的概念。它在他们的职业文化中定义了新颖的“心理污点”和污点管理策略。根据人种学数据，心理污染的三个来源被确定为完成工作所必需的心理过程、与被污名为精神疾病的群体相关的污染以及监狱工作的有害影响。本文分析了监狱工作中未解决的焦虑与心理污染中外部威胁的放大显着性之间的关系。在推进对职业文化和身份的研究的同时，心理污染提供了一个建设性的视角来分析多个领域的职业。所提出的影响涉及监狱工作场所的性质，