institutional aggression in the context of aggression

Question 1

what is the main dispositional explanation?

Answer 1

• importation model: institutional aggression results from characteristics of prisoners

Question 2

summarise importation model

Answer 2

• prisoners are not insulated from everyday life outside in the ‘real world’- prison inmates bring with them (import) a subculture typical of criminality
• this includes beliefs, values, norms as well as persona; characteristics such as gender, race and class
• inmates import these behaviours to negotiate their way through unfamiliar prison environment in which existing inmates use aggression to establish power,status, influence and access to resources
• so institutional aggression is the result of individual characteristics of inmates and not of the prison environment

Question 3

DeLisi et al studied over 800 juvenile deliquents confined in institutions in California- these inmates brought into confinement with them several

Answer 3

negative dispositional factors e.g. experiences of childhood trauma, high levels of anger and irritability, histories of substance abuse and violent behaviour
- consequences included increased self-harm and prisoner violence compared to a control group of inmates with fewer negative dispositional features)

Question 4

what is the situational explanation for institutional aggression?

Answer 4

deprivation model: institutional aggression due to stress created by the prison environment itself

Question 5

summarise deprivational model

Answer 5

• harsh conditions cause stress for inmates- they cope by resorting to aggressive and often violent behaviour
• aggression is also influenced by the nature of the prison regime- another situational factor
• an unpredictable regime that regularly uses ‘lock ups’ to control behaviour creates frustration, reduces stimulation by barring other more interesting activities and reduces to goods e.g. television even further
• this is a recipe for aggression which becomes an ADAPTIVE solution to the issue of deprivation

Question 6

harsh conditions of the environment include:

Answer 6

• psychological factors such as being deprived of freedom, independence, and heterosexual intimacy
• physical factors: deprivation of material goods and services increases competition amongst inmates to acquire them

Question 7

what are the evaluation points?

Answer 7

• prison-level factors are independent of the prisoner’s personality supporting deprivation model (Steiner)
• alternative explanation to importation model
• culturally bound research e.g. cannot be applied to Denmark and Sweden’s prisons where focus is on rehabilitation
• one limitation of both is that the interactionist approach model may be better

Question 8

explain how prison-level factors are independent of the prisoner’s personality supporting deprivation model (Steiner)

Answer 8

• Steiner investigated the factors that predicted inmate aggression in inmates in the US
• he found that inmate-on inmate violence was more common in prisons where there were higher proportions of: female staff and inmates in protective custody for their own safety
• these are examples of prison-level factors because they are independent of the individual characteristics of prisoners
• in this study, the factors reliably predict aggressive behaviour in line with the deprivation model

Question 9

explain how there may be an alternative explanation to the importation model

Answer 9

• the importation model may be an inadequate explanation of institutional aggression because it ignores the roles of prison officials and factors relating to the running of prisons
• an administrative control model (ACM) has subsequently been proposed which states that poorly managed prisons are more likely to experience the most serious forms of inmate violence such as rioting
• poor management is characterised by several factors including weak and indecisive leadership and a thriving culture of informal and unofficial rules
• according to the ACM model, these factors are more influential in determining aggression than inmate characteristics, casting doubt over the validity of the dispositional explanation

Question 10

explain how one limitation of both is that the interactionist approach model may be better

Answer 10

• inmates entering a prison for the first time will inevitably suffer deprivation
• but deprivation does not necessarily lead to violence unless or until it combines with the individual characteristics imported into the prisons by inmates, which influence the prison’s culture
• this is a more valid explanation as it explains more of the evidence and people’s experiences of institutional aggression- it provides a fuller account because it explains a greater variety of aggressive behaviours
• it is also more realistic because it reflects the complex nature of institutional aggression which is unlikely to have just one cause, as assumed by the importation and deprivation models