A Systematic Review of Intragroup Aggression Among Prisoners: Proposing the Diffusion Model

To date there has been no attempt to synthesis the available research into prisoner-to-prisoner aggression. The current paper identified 362 articles eligible for abstract screening (from an initial 1,902), leading to 59 articles entering the review. A thematic analysis of these papers produced six superordinate themes capturing individual and social risk markers, who was involved, attitudes, environmental factors, a role for fear and staff involvement. A role for the environment permeated several themes. Cognition as a key mechanism was indicated, with fear also evidenced as an important emotional component that informed perpetrator-victim behaviour, with a hyper-arousal and hypo-arousal pathway to intragroup aggression being proposed. Findings are integrated into a proposed model - the Diffusion Model for intraGroup Aggression among Prisoners [DM-GAP]. This aims to present an understanding as to the causes for intragroup aggression and how incidents can be formulated. Future research should build on unique factors underpinning intragroup aggression, emphasising more the role of the environment and reducing focus on individual pathology models.