Institutional Aggression (A02 & A03)

Institutional Aggression (A02 & A03)

1. WITHIN GROUPS: PRISONS

   • THE IMPORTATION MODEL
     • Support: Harer and Steffensmeier collected data from 58 US prisons and found black inmates has higher rates of violent behaviour but lower rates of alcohol/drug related misconduct than white inmates. This parallels racial differences in these bhaviours in US society support the importation theory.
   • GANG MEMBERSHIP
     • Challenge: Delisi et al found inmates with prior street gang involvement were no more likely than other inmates to engage in prison violence. Lack of correlation between the two may be due to the face that violent gang members tend to be isolated from general inmate population thus restricting opportunities of violence
     • Fischer found isolating known gang members in a special management unit reduced rates of serious assault by 50%
   • THE DEPRIVATION MODEL
     • Support: McCorkle et al found over crowding, lack of privacy and lack of meaningful activity all significantly influence peer violence.
     • Research in this area is not consistent. A psychiatric institution study found increased personal space failed to decrease level of violent incidents among patients. (Nijman et al)
   • COMBINING DEPRIVATION AND IMPORTATION MODELS
     • Jiang and Fisher-Giorlando found SUPPORT for both models as explanations of prison violence.
       • Found Deprivation model was better able to explain violence against prison staff
       • Found Importation model was better able to explain violence against other inmates

2. BETWEEN GROUPS: GENOCIDE

   • THE IMPORTANCE OF BYSTANDERS
     • Staubs model emphasised importance of bystander intervention in preventing genocide
     • Doing nothing merely allows the killing to continue unabated and may even escalate it by signalling consent
     • However bystander intervention does not necessarily end aggression as there is an important difference between effect of intervention on duration an don severity of violence
     • Although intervention may shorten a conflict, it may hasten perpetrators to step up their genocidial policy within the period of time
   • DEHUMANISATION
     • Can explain violence against immigrants, seen by some as "polluting threats to social order"
     • Evidence for destructive consequences of dehumanisation can be seen in Holocaust and Rwanda conflicts and Bosnians in Balkan wars
   • OBEDIENCE TO AUTHORITY
     • REJECTION: Mandel rejects Milgrams claim that obedience to authority is a sufficient way to explain Holocaust perpetrator behaviour.
       • Milgrams claim is monocausal and ignores any other possible causes
       • Milgrams claim doesn't match the historical record

3. IDAS

   • RWA
     • Violence against refugees can be explained using dehumanisation theory
       • Research suggests that personality plays an important role. -SDO (Social Dominance Orientation) is a personality variable which predicts social and political attitudes.
         • Those high in SDO endorse social hierarchies and inter group inequality and see the world as a competitive place
         • Esses et al demonstrated that those high in SDO have tendancy to dehumanise outgroup members, in particular foreign refugees and asylum seekers.
         • Those high in SDO believe refugees deserve hostility as they are less human than others due to legitimising myths being rationalised by negative attitudes such as cheating the system
   • RWA
     • Deprivation model put into perspective at HMP Woodhill
       • Wilson- if violence occurs in hot, noisy, overcrowded environments then this could be avoided by reducing these factors.
         • Wilson set up 2 units for violent prisoners that were less claustrophobic and prison like and a gave a view to outside.
           • Noise associated with prison life was reduced, radio masked noise, temp was lowered
             • Assaults on prison staff and other inmates were virtually eradicated, political pressure lead to units changing regimes and developing in a different direction because we cant give the worst prisoners the best treatment