Institutional aggression in the context of prisons

Question 1

What is institutional aggression?

Answer 1

• Aggressive or violent behaviour that takes place within the social context of a prison or other formal organised settings

Question 2

Define dispositional explanations

Answer 2

• An explanation of behaviour that highlights the importance of the individuals personality

Question 3

Define situational explanations

Answer 3

• An explanation that identifies the causes of behaviour as existing within the environment, which may include other people.

Question 4

What is the importation model?

Answer 4

• Irwin and Cressey’s importation model argues that prisons are not completely insulated from everyday life outside in the real world
• Prison inmates come from the outside world and bring with them import a culture of criminality
• This includes beliefs, norms, attitudes and a history of learning expierences/ personal characteristics.
• This dispositional explanation is therefore based on an individuals nature and nurture.
• The willingness of an inmates to use violence inside prison reflects their life before being imprisoned, inmates import these behaviour to establish power, status, influence and resources

Question 5

How are prisoner characteristics linked to outcomes?

Answer 5

• Delisi studied a group of juvenile offenders in Californian institutions who had negative backgrounds. These individuals ended up importing these characteristics into prison
• when compared to a control group of inmates who did not have thesenegative features.
• These negative inmates were more likely to engage in suicidal activity, sexual misconduct and acts of physical aggression

Question 6

What is the deprivation model?

Answer 6

• Clemmers deprivation model places the cause of institutional aggression within the prison itself, a situational explanation
• harsh prison conditions are stressful for inamtes who cope by resorting to aggressive and violent behaviour. Deprivation of material goods is also linked to aggression as it increases competition in inmates
• aggression is also influenced by the nature of the prison regime. If it is unpredictable and regularly uses lock ups, this may cause frustration leading to aggression

Question 7

How is prison - level factors linked to outcomes?

Answer 7

• Steiner investigated 512 US prisons and factors predicting aggression
• inmate - on - inmate aggression was more common when there was a higher proportion of staff who were women, overcrowding and inmates in protective custody
• This supports the deprivation model

Question 8

What is a strength of dispositional explanations?

Answer 8

• One strength is that there is research support for the importation model.
• Scott Gamp and Gerald Gaes studied 561 male inmates with similar criminal histories and predispositions to aggression
• Half were randomly placed in a low - security Californian prisons and the other half were in high - security pridons
• Within two years, there was no significant difference in the levels of aggression (33 and 36%)
• This suggests that the prison environment is more of an important predictor in aggressive behaviour in inmates

Question 9

What is a limitation of institutional aggression?

Answer 9

• One limitation is that the importation model ignores key factors
• Dilulio claims the importation model ignores other factors that influence prisons behaviour such as the way a prison is run. He instead proposed a Administrative control model (ACM) which states that poorly managed prisons are more likely to have inmate violence. This is because weak leadership, unofficial rules and distant staff are inadequate to control aggression
• This shows that the importation model is limited

Question 10

What is a strength of the deprivation model

Answer 10

• One strength is there is research support.
• Cunningham et al analysed 35 inmate homicides in Texas prisons between 2000 - 2008
• They found that the perpetrators motivations for their violent behaviour were identified in Clemmers model. For example, arguments over cell - sharing inmates, drug usage, sexual activity
• These factors are identified by the deprivation model, supporting its validity

Question 11

What is a limitation of the deprivation model?

Answer 11

• there is contradictory research into the deprivation model
• The model predicts that a lack of heterosexual contact should lead to high levels of aggressive behaviour in prisons.
• However, Hensley studied 256 male and females inmates of two prisons in Mississippi which allows conjugal visits. There was no link between these visits and reduced aggressive behaviour