Institutional aggression Flashcards
What is the dispositional explanation of institutional aggression?
Dispositional explanations for aggression highlight the importance of the individuals personality.
What is the name of the model used in the dispositional explanation for institutional aggression?
The importation model.
What is the name of the model used in the situational explanation for institutional aggression.
The deprivation model.
What is the situational explanation of institutional aggression?
Situational explanations identify the causes of behaviour as existing within the environment.
What is the deprivation model?
The deprivation model is a situational explanation by Clemmer which places the causes of institutional aggression within the prison environment itself. Harsh prison conditions are stressful for inmates who have to cope by resorting to aggressive and often violent behaviour. These conditions include being deprived of freedom, independence, goods and services, safety and heterosexual intimacy. Aggression is also influenced by the nature of the prison regime. If it is unpredictable and regularly uses lock ups to control behaviour which causes frustration, reduces stimulation and reduces further access to goods which is a recipe for violence.
What is the importation model?
The importation model is a dispositional explanation which argues that prison inmates bring to the prison a culture of aggression including beliefs, values, norms attitudes as well as personal characteristics such as gender, ethnicity and class. The willingness of males to use violence reflects their lives before they were imprisoned. Inmates import such behaviours as means of negotiating their way through an unfamiliar environment and use aggression to establish power, status, influence and access to resources. Therefore, aggression is the product of individual characteristics of inmates and not of the prison environment.
Give a strength of institutional aggression (research support for the importation model).
Delisi and colleagues studied 813 juvenile delinquents confounded in Californian institutes. These were inmates who brought several negative dispositional factors into the prison e.g histories of childhood trauma, high levels of anger and irritability, a history of substance abuse and a history of violence. These inmates were more likely to engage in suicidal activity and sexual misconduct as well as commit more acts of physical violence.
Give a limitation of institutional aggression (alternative explanation for the importation model)
Dilulio claims that the importation model is an inadequate explanation of aggressive behaviour because it ignores the roles of prison officials and factors relating to the running of prisons. Poor management is characteristics by several factors such as weak and indecisive leadership, a thriving culture of informal or unoficiallforms of inmate violence, including homicides and rioting. Poor management is characteristics by several factors such as weak and indecisive leadership, a thriving culture of informal or unoficiall rules etc. these factors are more influential in determining aggression than inmate characteristics.
Give a strength of institutional aggression (research support for the deprivation model)
Steiner investigated the factors that predicted inmate aggression in 512 prisons in the USA. He found that inmate-on-inmate violence was more common in prisons where there was a higher proportion of female staff, overcrowding and more inmates in protective custody. These are all independent of the individual characteristics of prisoners. In this study the factors reliably predicted aggressive behaviour in line with the deprivation model.
Give a limitation of institutional aggression (the interactionist model)
We have seen that the importation model and deprivation models are both supported and challenged by research evidence. It is possible that both explanations work together to determine levels of institutional aggression. Prisoners are often deprived in many ways but this may not lead to aggression unless the prisoner has an aggressive disposition. Equally, prisoners who have an aggressive disposition may not necessarily be aggressive if their environment is less deprived which is seen by prisons in Scandinavian countries.
Give a strength of institutional aggression (research support for the deprivation model- cunningham)
Mark Cunningham analysed 35 inmate homicides in texas prisons and found that motivations for the behaviours were linked to some of the deprivations identified by Clemmer. E.g arguments over drugs, homosexual relationships and personal possessions. As these factors are predicted by the model to make aggression more likely, these findings support its validity.
