AGGRESSION

QUIZ

WHAT DO WE REMEMBER?

What are institutions?

Write down as many as you can think of!

Aggression can occur WITHIN GROUPS or BETWEEN GROUPS...

What do you think we mean by this?

INSTITUTIONAL AGGRESSION

What is an institution?Institutions are simply groups of people held

together by a common factorThey may be distinct entities, eg schools,

prisonsThey may be distinct groups, eg police, armyThey may be less distinct groups, eg terrorist

groupsWhat examples of aggression can you think of

for each of these institutions?

A survey of NHS services reported over 84,000 violent or abusive incidents on staff in 2000/01 (Department of Health 2002)

26,000 prisoner-prisoner assaults in US prisons (Wortley 2002)

Institutional aggression- within groups

Why do you think this behaviour occurs in institutions

Take 5 minutes to jot down some ideas...

STUCK? Think of the types of people, the situation and the environment!!

Why does this behaviour occur?

Focussing on Prisons...

In pairs, brainstorm why people in prison may be aggressive

1) Interpersonal factors- The importation model

- Prisoners ‘import’ their attitudes, values ‘social histories’ and traits into the prison. (Irwin and Cressey 1962)

- What influences do these have?

- Write down the answer

Why does this behaviour occur?

Theories for prison aggression tend to centre around two broad explanations:

Dispositional (individualistic ) causesThis suggests that the behaviour is due to ‘a few

bad apples’ and not due to the situationTherefore any aggression in prisons is due to

the personalities of the individual inmates rather than the situation they have been put in

General Myers, a chairman in the US Army state that the abuse at Abu Ghraib prison was not systematic abuse but in fact due to ‘rogue soldiers’

Irwin & Cressey (1962) – Importation ModelClassified prisoners into three subcultures

through their values, attitudes and experiences

THE CRIMINALSUBCULTURE:

• Follow the norms associated with being a thief or criminal• Values such as not betraying each other or being trustworthy amongst other criminals are important.

THE CONVICT SUBCULTURE:

• Have been raised in prison system• Look for positions of power or influence within the system• This group are most likely to turn to aggression• Influenced by deprivation prior to being imprisoned and bring values of that subculture inside with them.

THE 'STRAIGHT' SUBCULTURE:

• Tend to be one-time offenders• Weren't part of a criminal subculture before going inside• Rejects both other groups within prison and identify more with prison officers and staff• Tend not to be very aggressive whilst in prison.

2) Situational factors- The Deprivation Model

-says that the behaviour is the product of stressful/oppressive conditions of the institution itself- Paterline and Peterson 1999

Why does this behaviour occur?

Situational Forces

Zimbardo claimed that many of the same psychological processes were found between the Stanford Prison Experiment and Abu Ghraib suggesting situational factors had a major impact of the behaviour of the guards

However many studies do not support the deprivation model, showing pre-institutionalisation was the biggest predictor of inmate aggression regardless of the particular features of the institution

Evaluating Institutional Aggression Models

COME TO THE NEXT LESSON PREPARED WITH A NEWSPAPER ARTICLE/INTERNET SEARCH/WRITTEN DOCUMENT OF A RECENT INCIDENCE OF INSTITUTIONAL AGGRESSION

PLEASE EXPLAIN IT USING THE CONCEPTS

AND PROCESSES THAT WE HAVE LEARNED TODAY

YOU WILL BE READING THEM OUT IN THE LESSON!!

Prep: