What Does Culture “Look Like”? Cultural Models, Heterogeneity, and the Meaning of Trust in a Women’s Prison

“Culture” is frequently invoked as an explanatory device in criminology and criminal justice. Research examining the “culture” of women’s prisons emphasizes the salience of trust relationships for understanding social order. However, this work primarily documents the importance of trust, with less attention to understanding the meanings incarcerated women attribute to trust relationships. This manuscript presents two studies examining the cultural domain of trust in a women’s prison. Study 1 uses qualitative inquiry ( n = 29) to identify key themes regarding the meaning of the domain. Building from these findings, Study 2 ( n = 198) develops quantitative measures to examine a cultural model of trust. Results for Study 2 reveal two cultural models of trust (i.e., a multicentric cultural domain) and highlight how knowledge of the cultural model correlates with beliefs relevant to the setting (i.e., cultural consonance). Implications for the study of culture in criminology and criminal justice are discussed.