Causes Of Mental Health And Bullying In Prison Criminology Essay

Causes Of rational Health And Bullying In prison house Criminology EssayPrisons as fixs of deprivation of liberty stupefy existed since time immemorial, merely prisons as we know them today places where offenders atomic number 18 sent by the savage Justice System as a retaliatement for their behaviour - be a product of the industrial age (Maguire et al, 2005). Ideally the reason behind the manacles is according to Section 142 of the Criminal Justice Act 2003 (cited in Elliott and Quinn) to punish ,deter and rehabilitate the offender . The main aims of these trio areas is concerned with the recognition that the wretched has done something wrong. It therefore locates them in an institution which by taking by their exculpatedom, is designed to deter them from set ahead offences upon release, punish them for the offence already committed, and then tries to rehabilitate them, so that they are little likely to commit further offences upon release, either because they lea rn to see the harm they have caused, or because, finished education and training, they find separate ways to spend their time. The process of replenishment would spay them into law abiding citizens. What is more it is believed that it would persuade former(a) potential drop criminals that much(prenominal) activates are non beneficial in other operate-in it would deter people from committing further crime ( Elliott and Quinn,2008). While in surmise such(prenominal) an idea seems to perfectly fit the purpose of punishment, in radiation pattern signifi stubt amounts of negatively charged roll in the hay such as intensive result of blustery and genial wellness problems, are present within the prisons surround, unitedly with all everyplacecrowding and poor living curbs, failing to deliver the successful processing of such a plan (Elliot and Quinn, 2008). The aim of this essay is to compare and contrast causes of amiable wellness and cocking in prison, as well as r eveal any, if possible, links betwixt bully and genial health among prisonersFarrington defined bullying as the repeated oppression of a less powerful individual by a more powerful one. He claimed that it usually implys three different elements. The first element includes somatic , verbal or genial attack with intent to cause harm , fear or trauma . The second is an imbalance of power , where a more powerful person is oppressing the less powerful one, and thirdly it includes a continuous series of incidents between these same people over some period of time. Mental health is defined in Section 1(2) of the Mental Health Act 1983 as Mental unhealthiness, arrested or in completed development of mind, psychopathic disturb and another disorder or disabilities of mind. Although as shown above there is a bulky difference in what constitutes bullying and affable health, there is no doubt that both of them can be caused by similar factors such as favorable and environ psychica l causes (for example overcrowding) , physical causes and psychological causes(Ireland,2002 WHO, 1998).The physical environment in prisons such as overcrowding, quality of accommodation, availability of butt against with friends and family, lack of stimulation in the constitute of activities , may have an push on the prisoners mental health as well as contribute to the development of bullying in prison. According to Maguire et al. () the imprisonment rate in England and Wales is the highest in Western Europe, and according to the official prison statistics for England and Wales the total prison population has increased from around fifty-one thousand in 1995 to over eighty-four thousand in 2009. What is more overcrowding in prisons may get on with about to increased belief, stress, boredom and nervous breakdown, leading to serious breaches of prison discipline, delirium and riots. The cause of prison overcrowding and an increase in the prison population is a result of a great er number of convictions and the absence of the availability of prisons places. raise equally important factors are change in criminal arbitrator policy, tightening of sanctions, resulting in longer prison sentences. Reducing funds for the prison alike indirectly cause onslaught among prisoners.(though lessstaff, causing tightnessamongoverworkedstaff, which then affects the inmates). Prisons have a limited capacity, and the prisoners have certain rights that should not be violated. Factors such as lack of liberty, as in umpteen of the prisons where prisoners are locked-up for twenty three hours a day, lack of, or limited, talk with friends and family , usually without any privacy, all contribute to the problem. What is more, prisons take away the prisoners free get out. They can no longer freely decided where to live, with whom to associate and how to come across their free time and must fol first gear the discipline imposed by prison rules and prison officers.Physical cause s such as their individual characteristics or biological reach may have some influence on the causes of bulling and mental health in prisons. According to Ireland (2002) prisoners mostly come from social environments where emphasis is placed on toughness and the ability to protect oneself and when move into prison these characteristics are magnified. However such behaviour period cosmos in prison may be linked with bullying other usually weaker and disturbed inmates ( Irleand, 2002) According to Farrington () the people who range to bully are more likely to have children who testament be bullies, and people who tend to be the victims of bullying tend to have children who will force the victim of bullying. The same may apply to prison inmates who tend to be weak, with low self-esteem and with a low capacity for coping with the prison environment and they are more likely to become victims of bullying than people who are characterized as strong , confident and obstreperous. Al so individual genetic make-up might put some prisoners more at risk than others to jump from mental illness or become victims of bullying because they are less able to adapt or cope with certain environments or they become one of the bullies as they possess the physical skills which give prisoners the ability to bully others physically , verbally or indirectly. Moreover those suffering from any injuries while being in prison, which may have been caused by being mired in a fight with another prisoner, can also experience changes to their personality and in some cases may cause the beginning of schizophrenia, psychosis or self harm.Psychological factors such as a prisoners emotional and mental state of mind , especially when the prisoner has experienced any form of physical or sexual abuse or there have been any other potentially traumatic events in the past can affect his behaviour in prison. While there is a huge proportion of prisoners suffering from such trauma prior to imprison ment, many will experience such trauma as an effect of imprisonment (Crighton and Towl, 2008). broadly prisons are harsh places , where discipline and routine are the essence of cursory life causing being in prison to be a stressful experience . Additionally according to (Crighton and Towl, 2008) prisoners appear to be at a high level of risk with factors associated with poor traumatic responses from childishness onwards. . Psychological factors especially emotional responses (Irleand, 2002) in terms of bullying will probably be heightened for the victims . Prisons can be aggressive and threatening environments especially for the first time prisoners . They may be fearful of what may find to them. Undeniably fear is seen as a necessary component in definitions of bullying in the prison environment. Moreover fear may collision prisoners other emotions such as anxiety, nervousness and feelings of unimportance which may exhibit behaviourally through self harm or social avoidance. Despite the similarities in causes for mental health and bullying in prison we can also see differences . One of them is unquestionable the difference between the definition of mental health and the definition of bullying. Likewise once in prison , prisoners drop off a super structured social environment that negotiates for power and office, where dominance over other weaker inmates is one way of gaining acceptance , satisfaction , perspective and respect among other prisoners. Hence bullying is often seen as a normal part of prison life that helps to gain this dominance over other inmates. Furthermore bullies who remain at the top of the hierarchy among other inmates, through their dominance will often get other prisoners to run errands and do jobs for them which are against prison regime, and so they can remind unsung and hence will not be punished . While the condition of an individuals mental health consists of a number of different factors and elements. mental health is pr imarily our resistance to all of our difficult situations , events, phenomena and our emotional and psychological survival of the fittest partly depends upon an individuals ability to tolerate the deprivations of prison. Additionally according to Viggiani (2007) most prisoners come from the poorest or most socially excluded tiers of nightclub and often have the superior health needs. Prison may therefore be the worst place to send them given that, in the main, they are likely to be highly vulnerable or susceptible to poor health, hence mental disorders. Mental disorder may also be the cause of committing the offence, and hence imprisonment. As Rubin (1972398 cited in) says certain mental disorders are characterized by some soma of confused , bizarre, agitated, threatening, frightened, panicked, paranoid or impulsive behaviours and as a egress they may lead to inappropriate , anti-social or dangerous acts. Individual mental health may be managed and treated either by medication or different treatment programs (handbook), while in order to stay bullying prisons should focus on making changes to the prisons environment which would include ever-changing the supervision of the prisoners area, increased security for controlling and monitoring, educating staff and prisoners about bullying, amend communication between prison staff, or even increasing the stimuli for prisoners. This include raising the number and qualities of activities and programs available for prisoners.Undoubtedly, despite the similarities and differences between bullying andmental health, one may lead to the other ( Ireland, 2002 Farrington,.) . As mentioned above bullying constitutes aggressive behaviour in which an individual manipulates and dominates others in order to reach a goal, whether it is social or material. In order to classify the behaviour as bullying it must represent repeated and unprovoked acts of aggression , which include physical , verbal or psychological attack (Irlea nd,2002 Farrington, .). therefore bulling can cause immediate harm and distress to victims and have negative consequences on their mental health. Victims may feel psychologically or physically distressed and experience pain, and prisoners who have been the victims of bullying may experience a range of feelings such as anger, fear, anxiety ,paranoia , distress, hopelessness or depression (Ireland,2002) which can lead to avoidance, social isolation and therefore mental illness in prisoners.In conclusion despite the idea that prisons should rehabilitate and change offenders into law abiding citizens, we can see that prison is a mod form of slavery no matter what its ideological justification is. Prisoners mental health and bullying is a growing problem in prisons . rather of rehabilitating and changing prisoners into well managed and well behaved citizens, in many cases it changes them into more aggressive and troublesome inhabitants very often with physical and mental problems, whic h makes it harder for them to reintegrate with the society and with present times.