Institutional Aggression

Front 1

Who Developed the Importation model? What did it say???

Back 1

Developed by Irwin & Cressey - Prisoners bring their own social histories and traits with them into prison, which influences their adaptation of these into the prison environment

Front 2

What further things did Irwin & Cressey state?

Back 2

Prisoners are not blank slates upon entering prisons; so many normative systems developed in the external environment are imported into the prison.

Front 3

Support for the Importation model comes from??

Back 3

Support for this model into explaining Institutional aggression comes from the role of Individual factors: e.g age, education level, and race. These are transferable to the individuals environment.

Front 4

Harer and Steffenmeier? (AO2)

Back 4

Examined 58 US prisons, finding that black men are more likely to commit violent crime and less likely to commit alcohol or drug related crimes. This is in line with racial differences in society, supporting the Importation model as they are more likely to bring this social background of violence into prisons.

Front 5

What methodological issues are there within research into the Importation model and institutional aggression?? Explain them.

Back 5

BETA BIAS: Research into institutional aggression is predominantly based on men. Most of the findings from research are subject to beta bias, as the difference in gender behaviour is ignored. Female prisoners behave differently to men, developing strong social bonds rather than men, who tend to identify with the prison subculture.

In this way, females may present aggression in a qualitative manner compared to males, hence there would be a beta bias in the research, as research does not account for the difference within female prisoners and instead generalises male-themed research to all prisoners.

Front 6

Who Developed the deprivation model? What did it state?

Back 6

Paterline & Peterson - prisoner aggression is a result of the stressful, oppressive conditions within the institution itself.

Front 7

What oppressive conditions are prisoners subjected to??

Back 7

Overcrowding - which causes fear and frustration.

Experience of staff - less experienced staff are more likely to be subjected to aggressive behaviour (such as verbal attacks and intimidation), so that those within the institute can see what they can get away with.

Front 8

Hodgkinson (Deprivation AO2)

Back 8

Found that trainee nurses were more likely to suffer violent assault than experienced nurses. Supports the deprivation model as members of institutions are more likely to see how much they can get away with, and test inexperienced staff.

Front 9

Davies & Burgess (Deprivation AO2)

Back 9

Found that within prisons, the length of time the staff have spent there is a significant factor towards aggression, with more experienced officers being less likely to suffer an assault.

Front 10

How does Hodgkinson and Davies & Burgess support deprivation model??

Back 10

These support the deprivation model as an explanation of institutional aggression, as substantial research shows us that peer violence is used by those within institutions to counter the deprivation imposed by their institutions.

Hint 10

Iink that back fam

Front 11

Mccorckle et al (Deprivation AO2)

Back 11

Found that overcrowding, lack of privacy and a lack of meaningful activity were significant factors in causing peer violence. Supports deprivation as this oppressive conditions can hence significantly impact prisoner's choice in behaving aggressively.

Front 12

Nijman et al (Deprivation AO2)

Back 12

Found that in psychiatric environments, increased personal space doesn't decrease violence among patients, suggesting that there may be other contributing factors leading people within institutes to aggress, thus acting as a limitation to the deprivation model.

Front 13

How can the deprivation model be applied to real life? (AO3)

Back 13

Wilson's HMP Woodhill - set up 2 units for violent prisoners that were less claustrophobic and prison-like. They had views to the outside and the typical prison noise was reduced by classical music. The temperature was also reduced. These changes practically eradicated assaults of prison staff and other inmates. However, political pressures (the worst shouldn't be treated like the best) meant that the study had to change their approach. This however did support the deprivation model, as reducing the oppressive prison conditions stopped violence within the institution.

Front 14

Hazing also occurs within institutions. What is hazing?

Back 14

Bullying and disciplining of younger members of the group, used to mantain a "group pecking order"

Front 15

Allan & Madden (Hazing)

Back 15

Conducted a study on 11,000 US Students involved in clubs and teams, revealing that over half had experienced hazing.

Front 16

Vyugin (Hazing)

Back 16

In February 2006, the Russian soldier Private Sychev was brutally beaten by older soldiers, leading to his legs and genitals being amputated.

Front 17

McCorckle et al (Hazing AO2)

Back 17

Found that in prisons, domination of the weak was seen as essential bt inmates to uphold their status. Passive behaviour was interpreted as weakness or vulnerability.

This shows that Aggression may occur in institutes as a means of presenting power, and hence hazing may be a significant cause to institutional aggression.

Front 18

Problems with operationalising hazing??

Back 18

Problems occur when operationalising what is seen as aggressive behaviour within hazing, as many disregard it as fun.

One study of US Students found that a fifth of all participanrs met the researchers definition of hazing, whereas only 1 in 20 identified themselves as being affected by hazing.

Front 19

Methodological Issues within hazing research? (AO3)

Back 19

Participants may be subjected to social desirability bias, as they may choose not to disclose certain information about hazing as to not appear weak or vulnerable.

Front 20

Culture bias (Hazing)

Back 20

The majority of the research is based on western societies, making them ethnocentric. This may show that instititional aggression, in particular hazing, may be a characteristic of western culture, and hazing may be different or non existant in non-western cultures. In this way, generalising findings based on western societies to the entire population loses the validity of hazing as an explanation towards the cause of institutional aggression.

Front 21

How may inconsistent research affect the deprivation model as an explanation of institutional aggression?

Back 21

Having inconsistent research suggests that the deprivation model only offers a limited explanation of institutional aggression, further suggesting that institutional aggression is deterministic, as it depends on the conditions of the institute which may lead to aggressive behaviour.