Institutionalised aggression Flashcards
What does institutionalised aggression refer to?
Violence within an organisation
What are the two types of institutionalised aggression?
Instrumental aggression: to gain reward/outcome and to achieve goals
Hostile aggression: results from emotional states of feelings
Explain Irwin and Cressey’s 1962 Importation model
A dispositional explanation for aggression in prisons
Inmates as ‘bad apples’
Importing aggressive behaviours into prison to establish status and resources
Name some preexisting factors in inmates that cause affect levels of aggression in prison
Neglected upbringing Substance abuse Poverty Discrimination Lack of education/opportunity Gang membership
Name the three subcultures Irwin and Cressy say that preexisting factors lead to the development of inevitable conflict creating aggression?
Criminal: ‘career criminals’, repeat offenders, numerous sentences (highest level of aggression)
Convict: Raised in the system, possessing power&influence, a souce of info and resources among inmates
Conventional: innocents/one time offenders, reject other cultures
Using the importation model can you explain how institutional aggression may have occurred in Attica where an uprising killed 39 people?
54% inmates black origin, poor socio economic backgroud where gang membership common
Likely to be poorly educated, exposed to racial discrimination/drug abuse
Norms and values predisposed instutional aggression
What Delisi’s supporting evience for the importation model show about inmates who suffered from childhood trauma,histories of drug abuse and violent/irritble behavior?
813 juvies studied for institutional aggression
More likely to engage in acts of violence, sexual misconduct and suicidal activity compared with to a control without such histories
How do these findings increase the validity of the importation model?
The show that prison aggression is linked to pre existing factors that predispose inmates to aggression
What are methodological issues with the research?
Drug abuse/trauma not manipulated, no control over EVs (genetic abnormalities)
Reduces validity as unsure of causation
What are the alternative explanations for institutional aggression?Dilulio
Ignores the roles of prision officials.
Poorly managed prisons = extreme violence from inmates
Administrative control model suggests: weak/indecisive leadership, informal rules, different staff and lack of education opportunies= extreme violence/rioting in prisons.
What is meant by Syke’s Deprivation model?
Situational explanation of aggresision within prisions
Claiming characteristics of prison itself rather than population that accounts for voilence
What conditions do prisions have that inmates turn to aggression as a coping mechanism for? Violence may be against other inmates or staff.
Santised (harsh) conditions, stress and frustration
What does aggression become?
An adaptive solution to the problem of deprivation.
What does deprivation often involve?
Lack of access to goods and services i.e heat, noise and overcrowding (comfort)
Name some factors of inmates’ experiance that contribute to instutional aggression
Deprivation of…
Autonomy: no freedom/independance
Liberty: no control of power & have few choices
Heterosexual relationships: single sex environment
What do the deprivation of these factors lead to?
Aggression as a coping mechanism
Explain how instutional agression may have occued in the Strangeways prison using the deprivation model
Inmates subjected to deprivation of exercise and sanitation causing frustration to lead to violence
How does evidence from Mccorkle and Light support the deprivation model?
Overcrowding, lack of privacy/meaningful activity = likelihood of inmates violence
Overcrowding in male prisons increasing= levels of violence increase
How does this evidence increase the validity of the model?
By showing that deprivation is linked to IA and could be the cause
These factors do not occur in collective acts of IA, what does this mean for the deprivation model?
That is does not explain all types of IA, only individual acts of violence
What does the contradictory evidence from the study of 256 males and females in Missippi prisons show?
Conjugal visits= no sexual depriviation
No reduced levels of aggresion
Reduces validity of deprivation of heterosexual relationships linking to IA
What happened when the deprivation conditions at HMP Woodhill were improved and what does this mean?
Levels of violences significantly decreased
Unreliable explanation as it is linked to IA in some prisions but not others
