institutional aggression in context of prisons

• the dispositional explanation is the importation model
• researchers argue that inmates bring with them into prisons a subculture typical of criminality including beliefs, norms, attitudes and personal characteristics. Inmates import these characteristics which then influence their use of aggression to establish power, status and access to resources. Aggression is the result of individual characteristics of inmates and not of the prison environment
• researchers studied juvenile delinquents in californian institutions who imported many different negative backgrounds. For example, childhood trauma, anger, substance abuse and violent behaviour
• a researchers study compared 2 group of inmates where one group imported negative characteristics into the prison and a control group without negative characteristics. The negative inmates were more likely t engage in suicidal activity, sexual misconduct and acts of physical aggression
• is the situational explanation is the deprivation model
• A researcher argues that harsh prison conditions cause stress for inmates who cope by behaving aggressively. Aggression results from being deprived of freedom and material goods. It is made worse by an unpredictable prison regime that regularly uses lock ups to control behaviour. This reduces access to goods like TV even further. Aggression becomes an adaptive solution to deprivation
• deprivation of psychological factors such as freedom and a deprivation of physical factors like material goods increases aggressive competition amongst inmates
• A researcher 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, overcrowding and more inmates in protective custody. These are prison level factors because they are independent of individual characteristics of prisoners
• One strength of the importation model is research support. Researchers found no significant difference in aggression over 2 years between inmates randomly placed in low (33%) and high security prisons (36%). The researchers found that features of the prison environment are less important predictors of aggressive behaviour than characteristics of inmates. This is strong evidence for importation model because there was random allocation of inmates
• One limitation of the importation model is that it ignores key factors. A researcher claims the model ignores other factors that influence prisoners behaviour such as the prison officers and the way the prison is run. The administrative control model suggests poorly managed prisons have the worst violence as they have weak leadership, distant staff and few educational opportunities. Therefore, importation is an inadequate explanation because institutional factors are probably more important than inmate characteristics
• One strength of the deprivation model is research support. Researchers found that inmate homicides in Texas prisons were linked to deprivations identified in deprivation model. Many homicides arguments between cell sharing inmates where boundaries were crossed. These are the factors identified by the deprivation model, so the findings support the models validity
• One limitation of the deprivation model is contradicting research. The deprivation model predicts lack of heterosexual contact should lead to aggression in prisons. Researchers studied 2 US prisons and found no reduced aggression in prisoners who has conjugal visits. This suggests that situational factors do not substantially affect prison violence