LS9 - Institutional Dispositional Explanations Flashcards
Institutions
Places where people are confined and can become aggressive e.g. prisons
Situational Explanations
When the prisons social environment causes aggression.
Dispositional Explanations
When an individual’s traits and characteristics create their identity/aggression.
Importation Model
Individuals import their characteristics and traits into the prison. Individuals from a subculture of violence, will continue this in prison. Which explains how levels of aggression are higher with certain characteristics e.g. aggression.
Younger Inmates (Importation Model)
More violent as they’ll find it harder to adjust and are more likely to engage in aggression/conflict.
Californian Juvenile Offenders Study
Matl Delisi - Compared Californian juvenile offenders from negative backgrounds to people with positive backgrounds. The negative inmates were more likely to engage in aggressive activity e.g. suicides.
Strengths (+)
Black>White In American Prisons
High Security Vs Security
Weaknesses (-)
Ignores Other Factors
Population Validity
Black>White In American Prisons (+)
Adams found black inmates were more violent than white inmates. The argument is black inmates came from poorer backgrounds with higher crime rates to influence this.
High Security Vs Low Security (+)
Camp and Goes - 561 male inmates of similar backgrounds in high security vs low security prisons. In over 2 years there were no significant difference between the 2.
Ignores Other Factors (-)
It’s claimed factors like how the prison is run are important. Dilvlio proposed the ACM which suggests poorly managed prisons are more likely to have inmate violence.
Population Validity (-)
Research has only been done on male prisoners. It would be androcentric to assume it’s the same for men and families. Therefore beta bias is involved.
