L10- Institutional Aggression In The Context Of Prisons- Situational Explanations Of Aggresion

Question 1

Situational explanation of aggression

Answer 1

• Propose aggression in prisons is result of environmental factors
• crowded conditions= can cause rise in agg behaviour
• stressful environments bc form of punishment

Question 2

Deprivation model

Answer 2

Proposed by Skyes
- proposes agg results from no. of environmental deprivations
- deprivation of liberty, autonomy, goods, heterosexual relationships, security

Question 3

Deprivation of liberty

Answer 3

• prisoners deprived of freedom - main form of punishment - have to remain in prison environment
• often have to obtain permission to eat/sleep, shower etc.

Question 4

Deprivation of autonomy

Answer 4

• prisoners have no power, very few choices
• leads to feeling of helplessness = frustration + agg

Question 5

Deprivation of goods

Answer 5

• things we take for granted ( smartphones) restricted/ denied
• causes frustrated sense of failure = agg

Question 6

Deprivation of heterosexual relationships

Answer 6

• men feel emasculated from loss of hetero relationships
• greater opportunity for homosexual behaviour can leads to anxieties for prisoners

Question 7

Deprivation of security

Answer 7

• may live in fear off agg from other inmates = heightened sense of physical threat
• feeling of perceived continual threat = agg response as form of defence

Question 8

Situational context violence takes place in

Answer 8

Cooke et al
- to understand institutional agg, need to consider situational context violence takes place in
- argue violent prisoners only violent in certain circumstances: overcrowding, heat and noise, job burnout

Question 9

Overcrowding

Answer 9

• govt report 2014 attributed record rates of murder,suicide + assaults to increased overcrowding in British prisons
• Japanese study - prison population density sig effect on inmate violence rate

Question 10

Heat and noise

Answer 10

• prisons tend to be hot + noisy
• high temp + noise= exacerbate effects of overcrowding = may predispose inmates to agg behaviour
• Griffit + Veitch = studied students - found combo of high temp + population density = more negative emotions than comfortable temp + lower population density

Question 11

Job burnout

Answer 11

• prison staff being psychologically exhausted from job + gradual loss of caring about ppl who they work with (inmates) = linked to development of violence in prisons
• link to deterioration in relationship with inmates + overall functioning of prison

Question 12

Evaluation

Answer 12

+ research support- Gaes et al - overcrowding stress + overreaction
+ practical applications - better conditions = lower agg
- research - Camp +Gaes- high/low security
- research- McCorke et al- all stressed not all agg

Question 13

Strengths

Answer 13

+ Gaes et al- overcrowding in prisons = ill health + general misconduct and also agg + violence (overcrowding heightens stress= overreaction to other factors in institution)

+ practical applications - 2005, Wilson set up 2 units- overcrowding reduced, music introduced to reduce noisy conditions + temp controlled = found this was successful way to lower levels of agg

Question 14

Weaknesses

Answer 14

• deprivation model criticised = Camp + Gaes - randomly allocated 561 male inmates - matched on criminal history + predisposition to violence - low security, high security - 3% difference in no, prisoners committing agg acts in low/ high security= agg more likely result of individuals not situation (lower security = less stress= lower violence)
• deprivation model criticised - McCorkle et al - investigated agg in 371 state prisons in US - little evidence to support link between violence + overcrowding- points out stress experienced by most individuals in prison, but not all resort to agg- assumption stress + frustration always lead to agg is flaws