Aggression: Institutional aggression

Question 1

Institutional aggression is…

Answer 1

Violent behaviour exists within, and may be a defining feature of certain institutions and groups.

Question 2

What is an institution?

Answer 2

An institution is an organisation or body of some sort (such as uni, the police, a school or a person).

Question 3

What are the explanations for institutional aggression?

Answer 3

• Dispositional causes
• Situational causes

Question 4

What does the term dispositional causes mean?

Answer 4

Aggression is within the person.

Question 5

What are the two models for institutional aggression?

Answer 5

• Importation model
• Deprivation model

Question 6

Who proposed the importation model?

Answer 6

Irwin and Cressey

Question 7

What does the importation model state?

Answer 7

Inmates who enter prison with a particular characteristic are more likely to engage in interpersonal violence than other inmates. Violence is not a product of the institution itself but the characteristics of the individual. Younger inmates are more likely to have difficulties adjusting to prison life, and more likely to have confrontations with other inmates and staff. Prisoners are not blank slates. They claim that inmates bring with them to prison their violent pasts and draw on their experiences in an environment where toughness and physical exploitation are important survival skills.

Question 8

What does gang membership have to do with the importation model?

Answer 8

• Prison environments and gang membership is constantly related to violence and other forms of antisocial behaviour. Pre-prison gang membership appears to be an important determinant of prison misconduct. Several studies have found that gang members disproportionately engage in acts of prison violence.
• A study of over 1000 inmates imprisoned in the southwest of the USA found individuals who would be members of gangs prior to imprisonment were significantly more likely to commit various types of misconduct in present including murder, hostage-taking and assault with a deadly weapon.

Question 9

What is the role of dispositional characteristics in the importation model?

Answer 9

Other dispositional characteristics that have been found to relate to aggressive behaviour and prisons include the following:

Anger, antisocial personality style and impulsivity – Wang and Diamond (1999) found that the three individual characteristics of a stronger predictor of institutional aggression than ethnicity and type of offence committed. Of these, Impulsivity was the best predictor of violent behaviour in prison.

Low self-control – DeLisi et al (2003) found that low self-control, particularly the tendency to lose one’s temper easily, was a significant predictor of aggressive behaviour both before and during incarceration.

Question 10

Who proposed the deprivation model?

Answer 10

Gresham Sykes

Question 11

What is the deprivation or model state?

Answer 11

Institutional aggression, according to the deprivation model, is the product of stressful and oppressive conditions, which may make inmates may act more aggressively. Sykes (1958) described the specific deprivations that inmates experience within prisons and which might be linked to an increase in violence. These include the loss of liberty, their loss of autonomy and the loss of security.

A study of over 200 inmates discovered that violence in prison is frequently a way of surviving the risk of exploitation. They found the most violent situations is to do with non-material interests such as the need for respect.

Question 12

What study supports the deprivation model?

Answer 12

A study of over 200 prison inmates discovered that violence in prison is frequently a way is surviving the risk of exploitation, and the ever-present wrapped with imprisoned culture. They found that most violent situations in prison one more to do with non-material benefits such as the need for spec and fairness or as a way of expressing loyalty and honour.

Question 13

What did Cooke et al 2008 say the role of prison characteristics was?

Answer 13

Cooke et al (2008) claim that, in order to understand institutional aggression, we need to consider the situation of the context where violence takes place. They continue that violent prisoners are only violent in certain circumstances.

Question 14

What were the three circumstances of prison characteristics in the deprivation model?

Answer 14

Overcrowding - Japanese study found that prison population density had a significant effect on inmate–inmate violence rate, even after controlling other possible contributing factors.

Heat and noise - Prisons tend to be hot and noisy places. High temperatures exacerbate the effects of overcrowding and may predispose inmates to aggressive behaviour. For example, Griffin and Veitch in a study student found that a combination of high temperature with high population density produces more negative emotions than was the case with more comfortable temperatures and lower population density.

Job burnout - Turnout among prison staff refers to the experience of being psychologically warn out and exhausted from a job and a gradual loss of caring about the people with whom they work. This has been linked to the development of violence in prison settings because of a deterioration in relationships with a mate and that is the functioning of the prison.

Question 15

What were Sykes = five deprivations that arise ‘from the indignities and degradations suffered by becoming an inmate’?

Answer 15

1. Deprivation of liberty (permission needed to eat/interact/shower)
2. Deprivation of autonomy (very few choices)
3. Deprivation of goods & services (few material possessions)
4. Deprivation of heterosexual relationships (lack of female company)
5. Deprivation of security (many prisoners do report fears for their own safety)

Question 16

A03: Situational explanations

Answer 16

+ Research support for the deprivation model
- Ignores nature

Question 17

A03: Dispositional explanations

Answer 17

+ Research support
- Criticised for being correlational

Question 18

A03: Research support for the dispositional explanation

Answer 18

DeLisi et al (2011) studied 813 juvenile delinquents confined in institutions in California. There were inmates who were brought into confinement with several negative dispositional features such as experiences of childhood trauma, high levels of anger and irritability, a history of substance abuse, and a history of violent behaviour. Compared to a control group (those with fewer negative dispositional features), these inmates were more likely to engage in suicidal activity and sexual misconduct. They also committed more acts of physical violence that were brought to the attention of the parole board. This shows that it is the pre-existing trait of violence and aggression in prisoners (i.e. the aggressive personality/trait) that causes the concentration of aggression in prison environments.

Question 19

A03: Criticised for being correlational for the dispositional explanation

Answer 19

However, this research can be criticised for being correlational. As a result, it is not possible to establish a cause-and-effect relationship (i.e. does the inmates having a natural trait/disposition for aggression cause lots of aggressive behaviour to be displayed in prisons or, does the prison environment itself cause an influx in aggressive behaviour?). An inability to establish this relationship makes it difficult to draw firm conclusions about the cause of institutional aggression.

Question 20

A03: Research support for the situational explanation

Answer 20

There is substantial research evidence to support the claim that peer Violence is used to relieve the deprivation experienced in institutional cultures, such as prisons. McCorkle et al (1995), In a major study of 371 US prisons, found the situational factors such as overcrowding, lack of privacy and the lack of meaningful activity significantly influenced inmate – on inmate assaults and inmate-on-staff assaults. Franklin (2006) also found a relationship between the age of inmates and crowding. The meta-analysis found that crowded prison conditions increase aggressive behaviour in younger inmates aged (18 to 25) more so than in our age groups.

Question 21

A03: Ignores nature for the situational explanation

Answer 21

The Deprivation Theory can also be criticised for ignoring Nature as a factor explaining inmate aggression. For example, an alternative way to view institutional aggression is from a biological perspective. Raine et al (1997) highlighted neurological differences between murderers and controls using PET scans, and Dabbs et al (1995) showed that inmates convicted of violent crimes tended to have higher levels of testosterone than those convicted of less aggressive offences. These findings imply that the prison is not the main cause of institutional aggression (but that the prisoners are inherently aggressive) therefore calling into question the validity of the Deprivation Model.

Question 22

A03: General point

Answer 22

Most of the research has been undertaken on male prisoners so very little is known about the reasons for female violence in prisons. It would be androcentric to presume the same reasons for male violence can be used to explain female violence. There may be other factors involved that can result in female prison aggression. Therefore, the research can be accused of exhibiting a beta bias. It may be that males import aggression into the prison environment, but there may be differences to the extent that dispositional or situational factors affect each gender.