Psychology

Describe and evaluate institutional explanations of aggression – 24 Marks

Institutional aggression may occur within groups or institutions such as prisons or between different groups. There are two models that explain the aggression that occurs in prisons; the importation model and the deprivation model.

The importation model refers to interpersonal factors where prisoners bring their own social histories and traits with them into prison and this influence their adaptation to the prison environment. Many of the normative systems that the prisoners developed outside are imported into the prison, this means that violent misconduct would be imported into prison. Research into the importation model comes from Weeks who found higher levels of 'serious institutional misconduct' amongst prisoners rated with severe levels of alcohol dependence, suggesting that these behavioural traits are the reason they have been imprisoned in the first place and also personal factors mean that everybody will react differently to the prison environment.

The deprivation model claims that prisoner aggression is the product of the stressful and oppressive conditions of the prison. These include overcrowding, lack of space and liberty. This implies that imprisonment can cause extreme stress and frustration for inmates that in turn leads to aggression. Furthermore, it’s the characteristics of the prison rather than inmates that account for violence in prisons. Research into this comes from Hodgkinson who found that trainee nurses are more likely to suffer violent assault than experienced nurses and within prisons length of service was also a significant fact as more experienced officer being less likely to suffer an assault. This shows situational factors such as staff experiences also affect levels of aggression. Also, this model argues that it is the experience of prison that causes stress and frustration for inmates that leads to violence against other inmates and members of prison...