Institutional Aggression

• An institution is an organisation founded for a religious, educational, professional or social purpose- often with rules, codes or norms which restricts choices, eg prisons.
• • Institutional aggression= aggression which occurs in institutions, eg police, security, terrorist groups etc.
  • Can be split into aggression within groups, eg prisoner against prisoner, or between groups: prisoner against guard.
• Situational= factors present in social situations that can collectively encourage aggression that would not otherwise be shown- such as oppressive or stressful conditions, ie overcrowding.
• Dispositional= characteristics of an individual, such as their personality & their own personal history, class, age, gender etc, that can contribute to aggressive behaviour.
• Situational explanation- The Deprivation Model:

  • The Deprivation Model (Skyes, 1958) attempts to explain violence in prisons, as a response to the stressful, oppressive to which inmates are subjected.
• Skyes described some of the features of deprivation within prisons that may contribute to the aggression:

  1. Deprivation of liberty (choice)
  2. Deprivation of autonomy (free will)
  3. Deprivation of security
  4. Deprivation of goods & services
  5. Deprivation of heterosexual intimacy
• • Inmates can respond in prisons by withdrawing & becoming socially isolated, or they can rebel against these conditions in the form of violence against others.
  • For some, it may be that violence is seen as a way of surviving the threats within prisons, eg to avoid appearing weak.
• Situational factors within prisons:

  Cooke et al (2008) stated that 'violent prisoners are only violent in certain circumstances', some named were:

  1. Overcrowding- government reports have cited overcrowding as contributing to record rates of assaults, murder & suicide within British prisons (Ministry Of Justice 2014).
  2. Heat & noise- studies have shown that combinations of high population density & high temperatures lead to more negative emotions compared to low density & comfortable temperatures.
  3. Job burnout- refers to the staff working within prisons- being psychologically exhausted by your job & a gradual loss in caring about those with whom you work.
• Evaluation of institutional aggression- strength:

  • Research support from Zimbardo's Stanford Prison Experiment (1971)- 24 male PPs all subjected to physical & psychological tests first to deem them 'normal'.
  • Then were randomly allocated the role of prisoner or prison guard, ie there was no difference in level of aggression (disposition) between the groups.
  • Everything that happened next was situational, so any differences in the behaviour of the groups would be due to this.
  • Prison guards became more controlling & issued more punishments- study became so serious that it had to stop after 6 days.
  • The situation they found themselves in corrupted their normal way of thinking & behaving.
• Evaluation of institutional aggression- weakness:

  • Zimbardo's Stanford Prison Experiment (1971) was a study on conformity, not aggression, so can be said to lack validity.
• Evaluation of institutional aggression- strength:

  • Research support from Wilson (2010) a prison governor at HMP Woodhill, who reasoned that if you remove the situational factors of deprivation such as overcrowding, heat & noise, then you should reduce prison violence, which would have practical application in real life.
  • Wilson set up 2 prison units, one that was the usual prison conditions, but the other was more spacious, with plenty of windows to view outside, music/ local radio playing to drown out prison noise & kept at an overall lower temperature.
  • Assaults on staff & fellow inmates= virtually eradicated.
• Dispositional explanation- The Importation Model:

  • Importation Model (Irwin & Cressey, 1962) states that individuals 'import' or bring with them underlying characteristics, norms & past experiences into prison.
  • If individual comes from a subculture where violence is the norm, they will continue to be violent in the prison.
  • This may explain the higher levels of aggression demonstrated by individuals with certain personal characteristics, such as gender, age, race & social class, as well as personality characteristics such as self-control & impulsivity.
• The Importation Model:

  • Criminals often live in a culture of violence, where the norm is to use violence to settle disputes & this norm continues to determine their behaviour both inside & outside of prison, eg if those inmates come from an environment of gangs, toughness, violence to resolve/ gain respect etc, this will continue into the prison environment.
• Evaluation for institutional aggression- strength:

  • Research support- Harer & Steffensmeier (1996) conducted extensive study on prison violence involving 24,000+ inmates across 58 US prisons.
  • Looked at importation variables (race, criminal history) & deprivation variables (staff to prisoner ratio) to see which factors were best at predicting violence.
  • Evidence suggested that the only significant factors were those related to the individual (age, race, criminal history) & not those related to the situation, ie importation model explains prison violence better than deprivation model.
• Evaluation of institutional aggression- strength/ weakness:

  • The Harer & Steffensmeier 1996 study had a large sample size (beneficial), but involves cultural difference.
  • Prisons all across the world are very different & so cannot generalise, as for example, US prisons levels of violence are different to other prisons around the world, as US permits gun use.