Situational explanations

• Situational explanation for aggression - AO1

  - Deprivation model
• Clemmer (1958) - AO1


  - Argued that harsh prison conditions cause stress for inmates who cope by behaving aggressively

  - Aggression also influenced by the unpredictable prion regime that regularly uses 'lock ups' to control behaviour

  - Creates degree of frustration and reduced access to goods - television even further

  This is a recipe for aggression which becomes an adaptive solution to the problem of deprivation
• Harsh conditions identified by Clemmer (1958) - AO1


  - Psychological factors

  - Deprived of freedom

  - Lack of indendence

  - Not allowed to engage in heterosexual intimacy

  - Physical factors

  - Deprivation of maternal goods increases aggressive competion amongst inmates
• Steiner et al (2009) - Procedure - AO1


  - Investigated factors affecting inmate aggression

  - In 512 US prions
• Steiner et al (2009) - Findings - AO1


  - Inmate on inmate violence was more common in prions where there was higher proportions of female staff, African American inmates, Hispanic inmates and inmates in protective custody

  - These were prison level factors because they were independent of individual characteristic of prions

  - They reliably predicted aggressive behaviour In line with deprivation model
• Two research into the situational explanations/deprivation model - AO1

  - Clemmer (1958)

  - Steiner et al (2009)
• Research support for deprivation model - 😊 - AO3

  - Despite importance if individual factors there is research to suggests that some situational variables are also highly influences

  - Cunningham et al (2010) - analysed inmate homicides in Texas prions and found that their motivations were linked to some of the deprivation identified by Clemmer (1958)

  - As these factors were predicted by the deprivation model, they support the validity of a situation explanation for aggression
• Contradictory evidence for deprivational model- 🙁 - AO3

  - Deprivational model predicts that the lack of freedom and heterosexual contact leads to high levels of aggression in prisons

  - However, there is research that contradicts this assumption

  - Christopher Hensley et al studies 256 males and female inmates in two prisons which allowed inmate sto have conjugal visits (visits from partners to have sex)

  - There was no link between involvement in these visits and reduced aggressive behaviour

  - Shiws that situational factors dod not have a large effect on prison violence