A situational approach to understanding violent conflicts among men in prisons

• In Event: The Social Ecology of Violence and Safety in Prisons

Abstract

Conflicts between incarcerated people arise in a setting of discord. However, not every disagreement necessarily brings about conflict, not to mention a violent conflict. While much attention is given to important personal factors that increase the risk of violence, relatively little attention has been paid to the role of situational factors in prison violence (Goossens et al., 2023). While personal characteristics are relevant, explanations of violence remain incomplete without the addition of contextual factors that affect situation perception. Therefore, this exploratory study takes a situational approach. The goal is to contribute to existing explanations for prison violence with relevant characteristics of situations as perceived by incarcerated people. In this presentation, we will focus on interpersonal conflicts between incarcerated persons in which violence was (or was not) enacted. The data was collected through semi-structured in-depth interviews with 24 incarcerated men in 3 Dutch prisons. The results from the thematic analysis show three unique situational dimensions (the Situational 3 S’s) in the underlying patterns of violent interactions, relating to conflicting (social) goals in prison: i) Status, ii) Self-protection, and iii) Social connection. We will provide examples of conflict situations with corresponding situational factors that trigger and inhibit violent escalation. The findings underline the importance of situational information to better understand the nature of violent interactions in prison.

Authors

• Dante Hoek, Leiden University

• Ard Barends, Leiden University

• Esther van Ginneken, Leiden University

• Maarten Kunst, Leiden University