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Uvarov I.A. [Methodological approaches to measuring inequality among convicts in penitentiary society] World of Science. Series: Sociology, Philology, Cultural Studies, 2023, Vol. 14, No. 4. Available at: https://sfk-mn.ru/PDF/76SCSK423.pdf (in Russian).

Methodological approaches to measuring inequality among convicts in penitentiary society

Uvarov Igor Alekseevich
Russian State Social University, Moscow, Russia
Krasnodar University of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation
Stavropol Branch, Stavropol, Russia
E-mail: uvarov.igor@mail.ru
ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2678-7505
RSCI: https://elibrary.ru/author_profile.asp?id=456707

Abstract. The well-being of the population, as the basis for the stability of social relations, has traditionally been the subject of discussion not only among specialists, but also among members of the public and politicians. Among the indicators, it is customary to distinguish the level of inequality between different social groups. In this regard, in many sciences studying society in its various aspects, a certain idea has developed about methods of measuring the well-being and quality of life of people. With the help of empirically verified quantitative and qualitative indicators, specialists can record economic and social inequality, not only as a certain state, but also as a dynamic process. According to the author, such a specific social education as the penitentiary society «escapes» the attention of specialists. Justifiably considering it as closed, experts admit the similarity of social processes with the «big» society. At the same time, all researchers record that closed social systems form their own specific environment characterized by the presence of informal imperatives and a certain hierarchy. Informal hierarchy in a closed society acts as an independent value that affects the amount of benefits received by each of its representatives. The closeness of society also influences the level of inequality indicators between representatives of each social community of convicts. The analysis of various methods of measuring social and economic inequality in a «free» society carried out in the article allows the author to assert that their extrapolation in relation to the penitentiary society does not allow obtaining reliable results. The authors establish the existence in a closed society of a paradoxical system of qualitative definition of inequality, where, unlike the previously existing one, the criterion was the attitude to work. In modern conditions, labor is no longer a guarantee that allows convicts to overcome the existing inequality.

Keywords: economic inequality of convicts; social inequality of convicts; quality of life of those sentenced to imprisonment

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