Values and attitudes) with them, which influence their adaptation to the prison environment. They believe that interpersonal violence that occurs within a prison isn’t because of the institute itself; however, it’s the individuals’ characteristics. For example, younger inmates have a harder time adapting to the prison and have more confrontation with other inmates. They believe that violence is a good way of resolving conflict. As well as this, Black inmates have also been associated with interpersonal violence more than white inmates have.
Two main theories for institutional aggression are the importation model and the deprivation model. The importation model says that aggression within institutions comes from the people who join or are part of the institution; in prisons for example the people who enter into the institution are people who have committed a crime so they are likely to have history of aggression and violence, and so aggression is more common place in prison. Irwin and Cassey (1962) who came up with the importation model suggested that it is the prisoners bringing in their individual traits, such as religions or backgrounds, that cause conflict as their prior experiences are likely to clash with others resulting in violence. This research is backed up by Harer and Steffensmeier (2006) found that, in US prisons, black inmates had higher rates of violent behaviour but lower rates of alcohol and drug related incidences compared to white inmates; this reflected the racial differences in US society so therefore supports the model as it shows the people bringing in their personal experiences. Institutions aim to group together certain types of people; prisons group together criminals, the KKK group together people who have a particular way of thinking, the free masons group together the exclusively rich and famous.
This supports the importation model, as it shows that the aggressive individuals imported these characteristic into the institution due to their background there more likely to be aggressive. The importation model successfully explains aggression within a prison institution. Younger inmates are more likely to be aggressive as youth are more aggressive even outside the prison surroundings; therefore younger inmates are more likely to be aggressive within the prison. However, there is also violence between inmates and guards, yet the importation fails to explain this. As it is unlikely that the guards are aggressive outside the institution, the model fails to explain this aggression.
Institutional aggression is the violent behaviour which exists within institutions, this can often be a defining feature of the group. There are two theories for why institutional aggression occurs, the first based on a dispositions, the importation model, the second around situational factors, the deprivation model. The importation model was derived by Irwin and Cressey who classified prisoners into three separate subcultures based on their different attitudes, values and experiences suggesting that it is these characteristics which can predict whether they will be more aggressive within the prison system. The first of the three was the ‘criminal’ subculture, these are those who follow the norms associated with criminality and thrive off trust between other prisoners. The second subculture is the ‘convicts’ these are those who have been raised in the prison system and therefore are the most likely to become aggressive as they look for power inside.
The first issue revolves around sexual attacks or abuse that remains prevalent in correctional facilities. After being sure that correctional facilities are dominated by sexual injustices, advocates embarked on a mission of creating awareness on the prevalence, massiveness, growth and epidemic prison rape that continue dominating in detention facilities, jails and prisons. Activists referred to research findings establishing that, in the United States alone, ten percent of 1.8 million prisoners are victims of this unlawful act. The second issue id the cruelty at Iraq’s Abu Ghraib correctional facility. When these abuses took place at this prison, human rights activists cited human rights abuse.
For example an aggressive person in a prison will deal with situations in there with aggressive social mechanisms. Irwin and cressey (62) cited the example of prisons stating that an inmate will bring his own aggressive traits in as a coping mechanism. Harer and Steffenmeister support the importation model with research, observing a correlation between race habit on the outside compared with the inside of prison institutions, relating violence to blacks and drug behaviour to whites. This however can be criticised for being reductionist, as not all blacks are aggressive and not all whites are drug users, just as both races can partake in both behaviours. The findings appear to determine no new findings, they are simply correlational.
Contrastingly whites are underrepresented. However such statistics do not tell us whether members of one ethnic group are more likely than members of another ethnic group to commit an offence in the first place; they just tell us about involvement in the criminal justice system. For example differences in stop and search or arrest rates may be due to police racism, while differences in rates of imprisonment may be the result of courts handing down harsher sentences on minorities. There are other sources of statistics to reveal link of ethnicity and offending. Victim surveys ask individuals to say what crimes they have been victims of.
Discuss explanations of Institutional Aggression Aggression is the acts of violence and sexual harassment carried out towards people or a person. There are many explanations for Aggression and also many for aggression within institutions. When looking at aggression within institutions, there are three main factors that create the environment that allows aggression to be present. These three factors are deindividuation, identification and ecological and situational variables. Deindividuation is to lose ones sense of one’s own individuality and identity.
However we must be aware that these official statistics are not accurate due to the selective law enforcement, where men are targeted more often as they fit the stereotype of a criminal which leads onto the chivalry factor where men have protective attitudes towards women. Therefore the Criminal Justice System treat women more leniently thus their crime is less likely to end up in official statistics; hence some sociologists argue official statistics underestimate the amount of female crime. Typically female crimes such as shoplifting are less likely to be reported. Similarly prostitution, committed by more women is more likely to go unreported. Even when women’s crimes are reported they’re less likely to be prosecuted or be let off lightly.
Whereas on the other hand the Conflict Model of the contemporary criminal justice system refers to a model of crime where the criminal justice system is seen to be used by the ruling class to control the lower class. It argues that the organizations of the criminal justice system should work competitively to produce justice instead of cooperatively. It argues things like worries over fame promotion and other things like wages cause the criminal justice system to conflict its self. One example from within the system is between Police and prison officials. Police desire to put criminals into prison whereas prison officials are concerned about overcrowding facilities may desire to release criminals from prison 2.