Institutional aggression in the context of prisons

• What is institutional aggression?

  Aggressive or violent behaviour that takes place within the social context of a prison or other formal organised setting
• What is dispositional aggression?


  An explanation of behaviour that highlights the importance of the individual’s personality.

  Such explanations often contrast with situational explanations
• What is the importation model?

  Argues that prisons aren’t completely insulated from everyday life outside the real world. Instead inmates bring a subculture typical of criminal behaviour into prison.

  • Beliefs, value norms, attitudes and learning
  • gender, class and race

  Inmates import behaviours and characteristics as a means of negotiating their way through unfamiliar environments.

  They want to establish power, statues, influence and access to resources.
• what is the convict subculture?

  A subculture within prisons characterized by values, norms, and behaviors that are distinct from those of the larger society.

  Wanting to establush power, status, influence and access to resources.
• Thomas and McManimon (2005)

  • ‘People who prey on others on streets also prey on others in the prison’
• Research into the importation model

  DeLisi et al. (2011)

  • studied 813 juvenile offenders in Californian institutions
  • they had negative backgrounds like childhood trauma, anger, history of substance abuse and violent behaviour
  • they imported these characteristics and resulting dispositions into prison
  • the researchers compared them to a control group of inmates who didn’t have these negative backgrounds
  • The inmates with negative backgrounds were more likely to engage in suicidal activity, sexual misconduct and acts of physical aggression
• Strong research support for importation- A03

  DeLisi et al. (2011)

  • natural experiment using a control group

  Camp and Gaes (2005)

  • studied 561 inmates with similar criminal histories and predispositions to aggression
  • half were randomly allocated to low security prisons and the other half went to high security prisons
  • in 2 years there was no difference in aggression between the 2 groups
  • concluded that features of a prison environment was less important that inmates’ characteristic

  strong evidence for importation
• Importation ignores key factors- A03

  Dilulio (1991)

  • claims that importation ignore other factors that influence prisoners’ behaviour like the way the prison was run
  • proposes an Administratuve Control Model stating poorly managed prisons were more likely to have inmate violence

  So importation is an inadequate explanation because institutional factors may be more important than inmate characteristics
• Importation model is determinist- A03

  States the prisoners are aggresive due to dispositions they import into prisons. But they have little control over their dispositions.

  This implies that prison aggression is inevitable and not the prisoners’ fault.

  But aggression in prisons may be an outcome of free will and cognitive factors likely play a role.

  So aggression in prisons isn’t inevitable and is the responsibility of individual prisoners
• What is the situational explanation?

  Identifies the causes of behaviour as existing within the environment.

  • contrasted with dispositional explanation
• What is the deprivation model?

  Places the causes of institutional aggression within the prison environment itself
• What do harsh conditions of prisons do?

  Are stressful to inmates who cope by resorting to aggresive and violent behaviours
• What are the harsh conditions of prisons?

  Psychological

  • e.g. being deprived of freedom

  Physical

  • e.g. deprived of goods
• Why is deprivation of material goods closely linked to aggression?

  As it increases competition amongst inmates
• Aggression is also influenced by the nature of the prison regime
• What happens if a prison regime is unpredictable and regularly uses lock-ups to control behaviour?

  this creates frustration, reduces stimulation by barring other more interesting activities and reduces even further access to goods like TV.

  This is a recipe for violence which becomes an adaptive solution to the problem of deprivation.
• Research into situational explanation

  Steiner (2009)

  • investigated factors predicting aggression in 512 US prisons
  • Inmate on inmate violence was more common in prisons where there was a higher proportion of female staff, African American and Hispanic inmates, overcrowding and more inmates in protective custody

  these are prison level factors as they are independent of individual characteristics of prisoners

  • they reliably redacted aggressive behaviour as suggested by the deprivation model
• Strong research support for deprivation model- A03

  Steiner (2009)

  • large sample of 512 US prisons

  Cunningham at al. (2010)

  • longitudinal research- analysed 35 inmate homicides in Texas prisons between 2000 to 2008
  • found that perpetrators motivations for aggresion were linked to deprivations identified by Clemmer
  • many homicides followed arguments between cell sharing inmates when boundaries were judged to have been crossed, about drugs, sexual activity or personal possessions

  Research supporting the model’s validity
• Contradictory research to the deprivation model- A03

  Lack of heterosexual contact may not actually lead to high level of aggressive behaviour in prisons.

  Hensley et al. (2002)

  • studied 256 male and female inmates in 2 prisons in Mississippi where conjugal visits were allowed
  • there was no link between these visits and reduced aggression

  suggests that situational factors don‘t substantially affect prison violence