Institutional Aggression

• Dispositional : Importation Model

  Irwin and Cressey - prisoners bring their violent pasts to prison with them, including beliefs, values, norms etc. They use these behaviours to navigate prison life and are predisposed to using violence in any setting
• Dispositional : Research


  De Lisi et al

  • Studied 813 juvenile delinquents in institutions and found they had several dispositional features (childhood trauma, substance abuse history etc.)
  • They found these inmates were more likely to engage in suicidal activity and sexual misconduct, and were more physically violent
• Situational : Deprivation Model

  Clemmer - aggression is the product of stressful and oppressive conditions e.g. no freedom, safety, intimacy.

  Deprivation of material goods means inmates compete for resources. Also the nature of prison regime creates frustration that can lead to aggression.
• Situational : Research


  Steiner

  • Investigated factors predicting aggression in 512 prisons
  • Found inmate-on-inmate violence was higher with female staffed prisons, overcrowding and more inmates in protective custody.
• Eval : Strength


  Camp and Gaes studied 561 male inmates with similar histories and found 33% in low security and 36% in high security were involved in aggressive misconduct within 2 years. Shows support for the role of dispositional factors as the level of security didn't impact aggression.
• Eval : Strength


  Cunningham et al analysed 35 inmate homicides and found motivations for behaviour came from deprivation factors. Shows support for situational factors and supports validity.
• Eval : Interactionist


  Jiang and Fisher-Giorlando suggest the deprivation model is better for explaining inmate-on-staff aggression and the importation model is better for inmate-on-inmate aggression. Suggests both models may be valid but a interactionist approach may be more appropriate.