Aggression Institutional Aggression In Prisons Flashcards
A01 Dispositional Explanation - Importation Model - Irwin & Cressey
Dispositional explanation is where aggressive behaviours are predisposed and explained by the importation model found by Irwin & Cressey.
They claimed prisoners bring their own traits and norms developed outside of the prison in with them.
Suggessting aggression isnt developed inside it is carried with them through factors such as Gang Membership.
This is due to violent behaviour being rewarded and being seen as the social norm
Mears et al also conducted a longitudinal study on participants from poor areas, from childhood to see if they ended up at prison
Interviews were used to find out about social norms.
The higher the belief of gang membership and code of the streets resulted in more violence showing a positive correlation.
A03 Dispositional Explanation - Kane & Janus
Support for the importation model comes from Kane & Janus.
They investigated behaviour of prisoners in prisons and counted the number of violent offences.
Other factors were also measured such as : level of education, past employment and past violence.
Prisoners who had low levels of educatuon, were unemployed and had history of violence were more likely to behave aggressively in prison.
Therefore supporting behaviour is imported
A01 Situational Explanation - Deprivation Model - Sykes
The situational explanation focuses on the environment for the cause of aggression such as poor prison conditions.
The deprivation model can explain this which was created by Sykes, who said aggressive behaviour occurs due to being deprived of security, goods and feedon.
Eg the loss of security could lead to increased anxiety levels and then result in inmates acting aggressively to other inmates or guards.
Overcrowding, warm conditions abd a noisy environment caused aggression to also increase.
A03 Situational Explanation - McCorkle
McCorkle studied the conditions of 371 prisons to see if there was a link to aggressive behaviour.
This was done through a correlational study.
He found a lack of privacy, overcrowding and deprivation lead to aggression showing a positive correlation.
David Wilson a prison owner applied the situantional explanation to improve the behaviour in prisons.
He reduced noise, temperature, overcrowding and found a decrease in violent behaviour within prisoners.
This shows the explanation can be applied to real life application.
A03 Situational Explanation - Harer & Steffensmeier.
Harer & Steffensmeier studied 24,000 inmates to collect data about their environment, security and overcrowding.
He included personal characterisitics such as criminal history, drug use and age.
They found that only personal characterisitics caused aggression, therefore supporting the dispositional explanation.
This is seen as a limiation for the situational explanation as a major study on US prisons found no correlation between prison conditions and aggressive behaviour.
A03 Interactionist approach - Jiang & Fisher
Jiang & Fisher suggessted that a interactionist approach between both models is best.
They found that the deprivation model was better for explaining aggression towards guards and the importation model was better for explaining aggression towards other prisoners.
