Institutional aggression in the context of prisons

Question 1

What theoretical stances have arisen to account for institutional aggression?

Answer 1

• Dispositional explanations > locate causes of aggressive behaviour within the individual (personality)
• Situational explanations > attribute responsibility for aggression to factors within the prison environment

Question 2

What is the dispositional theory of institutional aggression and who proposed it?

Answer 2

• The importation model > Irwin & Cressey (1962)

Question 3

What does the importation model argue?

Answer 3

• model suggests that aggression is caused by individual differences rather than the prison context
• This is because as suggested by Thomas & McManimom the willingness of inmates to use violence in prisons to settle disputes reflects prisoners lives in the ‘real world’ and is a result of their dispositions (beliefs, history, traumas, abuse etc)
• Irwin & Cressey > inmates import such behaviours into prisons which will pre dispose them to use their aggression to establish power, status, access to resources etc
• they will not be challenged as aggression is apart of the ‘convict subculture’

Question 4

What is the dispositional explanation based on?

Answer 4

• nature (individual temperament)
• nurture (social environment)

Question 5

What evidence is there for the importation model?

Answer 5

• DeLisi et al > studied a group of juvenile offenders
• found that certain dispositional traits such as childhood trauma, anger etc were imported into prisons & coincided with an increase risk of violent behaviour & suicidal activity amongst them compared with control group of inmates who did not have negative features

Question 6

What is the situational theory for institutional aggression and who proposed it?

Answer 6

• the deprivation model > Clemmer (1958)

Question 7

What does the deprivation model argue?

Answer 7

• prison environment itself is the cause of IA
• harsh prison conditions are stressful to inmates who cope by resorting to aggression
• harsh conditions include:
  1. lack of opportunity to fulfil psychological needs (sexual intimacy)
  2. physical factors (deprived of good & services)
  3. prison regime (unpredictable & regular use of ‘lock ups’ to control behaviour may create frustration, reducing stimulation by barring other activities e.g. TV)
  >leads to increase competition for resources which are resolved through violence (adaptive solution)

Question 8

What evidence is there for the deprivation model?

Answer 8

• Steiner in his meta analysis of 512 US prisons found that prison level factors e.g. overcrowding, more women staff & more inmates in protective custody were indicators for the likelihood of aggressive behaviour from inmates

Question 9

What is a strength of the importation model?

Answer 9

• Research support
• Camp & Gaes > studied male inmates with similar criminal histories & predispositions to aggression
• half were placed in low security prions and half placed in high security prisons
• within two years there was no significant difference between prisons in the number of prisoners involved in aggressive misconduct
• concluded that features of prisons are less important predictors of aggressive behaviour > strong evidence due to random allocation of inmates > more valid & reliable

Question 10

What is a limitation of the importation model?

Answer 10

• ignored key factors
• Dilulio claims that the model ignores factors such as the way prions run in influencing prisoners behaviour
• he proposed an administrative control model (ACM) as a more valid & accurate explanation of aggressive behaviour > which states that poorly managed prisons are more likely to have inmate violence
• e.g. unofficial rules, staff who remain distant from inmates etc
• may act as triggers for aggressive behaviour > suggest situational more important

Question 11

What is a strentgh of the deprivation model?

Answer 11

• research support
• Cunningham et al > analysed 35 inmate homicides in Texas prisons & found that the perpetuators motivations for violent behaviours were linked to some of the deprivations identified in Clemmer’s model
• these included disputes between cell sharing inmates over drugs, sexual activity & personal possessions
• support models validity

Question 12

What is a limitation of the deprivation model?

Answer 12

• the model predicts that a lack of heterosexual contact should lead to high levels of aggressive behaviour in prisons
• However, Hensley et al > studied male & female inmates of 2 prions in Mississippi which allow conjugal visits (visits from partners to have sex)
• Found no link between involvement in these visits & reduced aggressive behaviour
• situational factors do not substantially affect prison violence > decrease external validity