Stress, Change and Collective Violence in Prisons (original) (raw)
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Naming the prison for what it is: a place of institutionally- structured violence
Headline after headline in the British Press in recent months has placed a spotlight on prisoner violence. Prisoner violence, especially that perpetrated by prisoners against prison officers, has been consistently portrayed as reaching epidemic proportions. Statistics have been rolled out again and again detailing rises in assaults on staff, prisoner homicides and general levels of prisoner interpersonal violence in the last four years. Yet much of the recent media focuses only on the physical violence perpetrated by prisoners. Whilst such interpersonal physical violence should not be ignored or downplayed, it is only one kind of prison violence and by no means the most deadly.
Interpersonal violence and social order in prisons
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Violence in Prisons, Revisited
Journal of Offender Rehabilitation, 2007
A close review of prison violence makes it obvious that a disproportionate amount of such violence is related to the mental health problems of prisoners, and that, in the U.S. at least, this appears to have become increasingly the case. One reason for the trend is that prison administrators have been routinely relegating disturbed disruptive inmates to disciplinary or administrative confinement settings that exacerbate their difficulties. The familiar cycle of symptomatic behavior-to-punitiveness-to-symptomatic behavior-to-disruptiveness can be tracked through chronological reviews of individual prison careers; the same reviews can serve to illustrate the prospects of addressing mental health problems and interrupting violence chronicity through ameliorative interventions.
When Prisoners Take Over the Prison: A Social Psychology of Resistance
Personality and Social Psychology Review, 2012
There is a general tendency for social psychologists to focus on processes of oppression rather than resistance. This is exemplified and entrenched by the Stanford Prison Experiment (SPE). Consequently, researchers and commentators have come to see domination, tyranny, and abuse as natural or inevitable in the world at large. Challenging this view, research suggests that where members of low-status groups are bound together by a sense of shared social identity, this can be the basis for effective leadership and organization that allows them to counteract stress, secure support, challenge authority, and promote social change in even the most extreme of situations. This view is supported by a review of experimental research--notably the SPE and the BBC Prison Study--and case studies of rebellion against carceral regimes in Northern Ireland, South Africa, and Nazi Germany. This evidence is used to develop a social identity model of resistance dynamics.
2015
This article explores three forms of violence in the prison place: cultural, physical and institutionally-structured violence. The article starts with an overview of the nature and extent of 'everyday mundane' physical violence in the prison place, drawing upon but also problematising official data. The article then looks at 'cultures of violence' and the role that they perform in legitimating everyday prison violence. Finally, and most importantly, the article then explores the problem of 'structural violence' (Galtung, 1969) and 'institutionally-structured violence' (Iadicola and Shupe, 2003) in the prison place and the manner in which it underscores both physical and cultural violence. Making connections with the 'deprivation' thesis in the sociology of imprisonment literature and detailing harmful outcomes and consequences of institutionally-structured violence, such as the generation of suicidal ideation and self inflicted deaths in prison, the article concludes by arguing that prisons are inevitably places of violence, iatrogenic harm, injury and death. Any successful anti-violence and harm reduction strategies must therefore be directly tied to broader radical reductionist and penal abolitionist agendas.
It is conversely endorsed by penologists that incarcerated inmates are often looked down upon by free society. Society views inmates and their institution as a lawless and disorderly arena, devoid of conventional mores. This assumption may be far too rushed. Based on the preponderance of law and society research, it makes more sense that just as humans assimilate to the norms, customs, and laws of society, inmates must assimilate to the self-contained community of a prison and adapt their own form of law. The prison society appears to still uphold the foundational values that shape outside society. Though some of the values of the prison may be discordant with societal values, the prison society appears to mirror the core values that flow through the outside world: a hierarchical society with socially construed laws that enforce order and organization through the values respect and morality.
Tracing the elements of prison violence
Crimen, 2023
Prison violence is a serious issue affecting inmates and staff worldwide. This study analyzes data from Greek prisons to identify factors associated with prison violence. The data includes statistics on the prison population, number of violent incidents, overcrowding, spatial density, and inmate/staff ratios. The findings indicate that overcrowding alone does not directly cause more violence. Rather, factors like facility management, architecture, inmate population characteristics, and staff training seem to have a greater impact. Overall, the study highlights the need for a holistic approach to prison management and design that considers the environment, population, and staff to reduce violence. The complex interplay of these elements must be examined to understand and prevent prison violence.