Institutional aggression can be defined as aggressive behaviour that occurs within an institution motivated by social forces, rather than anger or frustration. Aggression can occur within groups or between groups. Sometimes the members of an institution may adopt aggressive behaviour, for example inmates in a prison may form into gangs that commit violence against other inmates, or members of a work force may bully other workers. Of interest to psychologists is whether or not institutional aggression is caused by the personalities of the institution’s members, or by the situation the members find themselves in. A lot of research into institutional aggression has focused on aggressive behaviour in prisons, and has led to the development of two theories: the importation model and the deprivation model.
Outline and evaluate research into institutional aggression (24 marks) A01 Institutional aggression refers to the violent behaviour that exists within a certain institution or group. It can refer to other sorts of collective violence between social groups, such as riots and intergroup conflicts. Institutions can be distinct entities, it can be schools, prisons or larger bodies such as the armed forces or police, and it could even represent a whole society. Institutional aggression can range from physical acts of violence, initiation rituals or even acts to destroy a national, racial or religious group (Rwandan Genocide) * Importation model (Irwin and Cressey 1962) – claims inmates who enter the prison with particular characteristics (Values, attitudes or experiences) are more likely to engage in interpersonal violence than other inmates. * According to this theory, interpersonal violence is not a product of the institution itself, but rather the characteristics of the individuals in the institution * Younger rather than older individuals are said to have a more difficult time adjusting in prisons and therefore are more likely to clash with other inmates – Adams 1981 * Research shown that black inmates when compared to white, are more likely to be associated with interpersonal violence – explanation is that black prisons enter the prisons from more impoverished communities with higher rates of violent crime – thus, import the violence due to cultural norms.
These new gang chapters sometimes become rivals to the original gang (Major Prison Gangs). Prison gangs are responsible for a wide varity of illegal activities. Along with offering protection to its gang members, prison gangs handle the drug, tobacco, and alcohol trafficking inside the prison. They are able and often bribe or scare other inmates and staff to “look the other way” as they commit their crimes. Larger prison gangs can even influence organized crime outside of prison.
He has composed a test to measure different aspects of a persons character. He refers to 3 main characteristics, Neurotosism refers to how emotionally unstable a person is. Extroversion how outgoing you are and psychosism is a measure of criminal tendencies. The following characteristics are associated with each one, neurotosism; emotionally unstable, extroversion; requiring great deal of external stimulation and psychotosism referring to being cold, uncaring and agree dive, highly likely to engage in criminal activity. Eyesneck conducted his own research on prisoners and concluded that being high in any 3 can lead to criminal activity but more so neurotosism and psychosism.
Outline and evaluate institutions as a cause of aggression Institutional aggression involves the behaviour of those who are serving in an institution; for example the police, military and terrorist groups. Explanations of institutional aggression are split up into two factors; situational factors and dispositional factors. Situation factors are present in social situations that can encourage individuals to display aggressive acts that they may not display normally. Dispositional explanations can be they show aggressive behaviours to; be respected, acceptance, or to gain substances such as drugs or alcohol. In the USA Wortley 2002 reported 26,000 prisoner assaults during 1995.
Prisons are consistently overflowing with repeat offenders and minor criminals. In addition to repeat offenders and perpetrators of minor crimes clogging up the system, the cost of keeping a prisoner is astronomical compared to the author’s suggested form of punishment. However, I do see the need for prisons, or someplace comparable, to keep the most violent criminals out of society. I believe Moskos should have stated hard facts regarding the ineffectiveness of prisons and given pertinent details about the productive use of corporal punishment. I’m not sure there are any “appropriate” forms of punishment.
2). and “Brutality has been defined as excessive force, name calling, sarcasm, ridicule, and disrespect”(para. 16). Corruption can be either inside the department or with the criminals an officer is supposed to be helping convict. Internal
Running head: Psychological Trait Theory Psychological Trait Theory Alyssa Recinos Abstract Psychological trait theorists focus on how characteristics of different individuals interact with their environments, social or otherwise to produce violent events or outcomes. Instead of studying biological factors of crime like how a person interacted with their surroundings in their early developmental stage, they look at the mental processes and look for the association between intelligence, personality, how they learn, and aggressive criminal behavior. Psychological Trait Theory The psychological Trait theory is the second branch of trait theories. It “focuses on the psychological aspects of crime, including the associations among intelligence, personality, learning, and criminal behavior” (Page 119, Criminology The Core). There have been several sociological and criminological theories that stress that most violent criminals are impulsive and have a lack of empathy for others.
The rise of gang membership has divided the shared system into contending groups, which amplifies the potential for violence. During daily interactions, general management needs to show respect as well as sensitivity to the different ethnic groups. Procedures were established to battle gangs in the system, which include; segregation, isolating the leaders of the gangs, classifying, and labeling members of the gangs who have been in general population. Special corrections officer response teams were formed to manage inmates, which are the Corrections Emergency Response Team (Cert), Special Operation Response Team (SORT), and Special Response Teams (SRT’s) to help deal with fights; those that refuse to follow orders, and those who assault members of staff. To secure the prison a sally port (vehicle control) controls traffic coming and going.
Yet it brings about so many different meanings. .The system of rules which a particular country or community recognizes as regulating the actions of its members and which it may enforce by the imposition of penalties. What is criminality? Criminality is basically said to be the state as that of a criminal, there are many curiosities of a criminal which is why there are many studies of a criminals behaviour, and what drives an individual to make choices that lead up to the meaningless evidential life of a criminal. Law and criminality is the study of ones behaviour and justifying that by the certain laws of the specific countries