Institutional aggression

Institutional aggression

1. Prison violence

   • importation model - prisoners import their violence into prison
   • gang membership - pre-prison gang membership an important determinant of prison misconduct
   • deprivation model - a reaction to stressful conditions in prison
   • Sykes (1958) - specific deprivation within prison linked to increase in violence

2. Prison violence evaluation

   • importation model - support from studies of US prisons - Harer and Steffensmeier (2006)
   • DeLisi et al (2004) - challenges the claim that pre-prison membership predicts violence
   • deprivation model - support from prison studies but not psychiatric institutions
   • deprivation model explains violence against staff - importation model explains violence against other inmates - Jiang and Fisher-Giorlando (2002)

3. Genocide

   • Staub (1999) - 5 stages of genocide
   • dehumanisation - removal of moral restraints against killing other humans - Tutsi 'cockroaches'
   • Milgram believed situational pressures could coerce people into destructive behaviour

4. Genocide evaluation

   • bystanders - non-intervention allows killing to continue
   • dehumanisation - may only explain violence against immigrants
   • obedience - ignores other factors - anti-semitism

5. IDA

   • real-world application - reversing conditions of deprivation led to reduction of violence at HMP Woodhill - Wilson (2010)
   • real-world application - dehumanisation can explain violence towards refugees through social dominance orientation (SDO)