Notes

The deprivation model claims that situational factors play a role in institutional aggression. it states that the origins of prison culture came from within institutions as opposed to outside of them. There are considered to be 5 main deprivations that come from the degradation of being an inmate:
Deprivation of autonomy- prisoners feel fairly helpless and as if they have no control over their lives, they have very few choices to make in their daily live and lack any real sense of power. The staff control their actions and behaviour, which can lead to aggression as they cannot change things they are unhappy about.
Deprivation of goods and services- As we all know, prisoners are not provided with many possessions or furniture or electrical goods ( besides the Halden prison in Norway), this can frustrate prisoners, especially as these items are easily accessible to normal people.
Deprivation of security- A sense of physical threat is always present among prisons, many inmates may be scared of fellow inmates due to the perceived nature and aggressions levels of prisoners.
Deprivation of heterosexual relationships- a lack of female presence may result in frustration among inmates, along with the rise of homosexual behaviour, the levels of anxiety and aggression may increase due to inmates feeling uncomfortable.
Cheeseman supported this model, he said that aggression in prisons was most often used to reduce stress, this supports the idea that deprivation creates stress, which in turn creates violence. In addition, a study was carried out on 401 prisons, and the results were that the deprivation model was the most effective in explaining prison violence against the prison staff. However, McCorkle et al examined individual and collective acts of aggression in 371 prisons. They found that aggression occurs as a result of poor management practices and lack of staff discipline, meaning the deprivation model is not useful. Also many acts of violence and aggression in prisons do not have explained motives, research has shown that 25% of violent acts in prisons are done for no particular reason. So these unexplained motives make carrying out research difficult, so once again the deprivation model may not be useful.