Institutional aggression

Slide 1

• Aggression in prisons is a problem. There are 2 main theories as to why aggression occurs in prisons at a higher rate than in the high street. These are the situational model that attributes the aggression to the situation & the idea that it is the conditions & deprivation that are the issue & the dispositional model focuses on the characteristics of the prisoners themselves, arguing that they're violent & aggressive people & therefore bring the aggression into prison with them.
• Dispositional Explanation - Irwin & Cressey(1962) suggests that prisoners import their aggressive tendencies into prison with them & this is why the rate of violence is high. They possess characteristics that tend to emphasises aggressive behaviour; these can come from biochemical imbalances or inherited genetic factors. May also learnt their aggression from their environmental(SLT) therefore these prisoners are acting no differently from how they would normally act.
• Irwin & Cressey identified 3 prison sub-cultures:
• -Crimincal/thief sub-cultures - promotes honour, trust & loyalty as its key values. Hardened criminals, repeat offenders who re-enter prison.
• -Convict sub-culture - strong power hierarchy. Deem to become aggressive to exercise power over inmates.
• -Conventional sub-culture - Individuals who are new to prison. not generally aggressive.
• These sub-cultures show how, in addition to personality characteristics, the background & learned history of a prisoner can affect whether they're likely to be aggressive & violent when put in prison.
• Evaluation
• -A strength of this idea is that it looks at prisoners in a more idiographic way rather than saying they're all the same. It can explain why some offenders are violent whereas others are not.
• -The model suggests that rehabilitation should consider the home environment & the individual.

Slide 2

• Situational Explanation - The prison context can also be regarded as a potential source of aggression.
• 3 specific types of factors that come from the environment within a prison:
• -Organisational - involving rules & regulations
• -physical factors - potentially cramped conditions, threatening environment & lack of comfort
• -staff characteristics - attitude & behaviour of the staff can be influential in prompting aggression in inmates.
• The case for interaction
• Both the situational & dispositional model play a role in aggression in prisons & it seems likely that it is the interaction between the two that is important. The dispositional model appears to better explain aggression towards other inmates whilst the situational model is better at explaining aggression towards prison staff.