Document Type : Research/Original/Regular Article
Authors
1 PhD student in Criminal Law and Criminology, Faculty of Law, Tarbiat Modares University, Tehran, Iran
2 Assistant Professor, Department of Criminal Law and Criminology, Faculty of Law, Tarbiat Modares University, Tehran, Iran
3 .Associate Professor, Department of Criminal Law and Criminology, Faculty of Law, Tarbiat Modares University, Tehran, Iran
Abstract
Prison is a setting where convicts still act logically in a setting full of power relations; hence, it cannot be said that prisoners commit the violence for enjoy the violence. Prison violence adheres to logic's rules perfectly. But how can violence be described within the framework of logical and rational behavior? The culture of prisons may contain the resolution to this query. The boundary between rational and irrational conduct is drawn by prison culture. The main questions of the article are, what’s the role of culture in regulating violence in prisons and how does culture influence escalation of violence? These are the questions the current article seeks to answer to them. To answer the questions of the article, qualitative methods and specifically in-depth interviews with 15 prisoners of three prisons in one of the northern provinces of the country (Iran) have been used. The findings of the research show that the cultural assumptions reproduced in the prison culture, as a whole, lead to the formation of the mentality of seeking immunity through resorting to violence. Prisoners develop the cultural understanding that they have to resort to violence in order not to be victimized inside the prison. Prisoners who are known as hard (tough) prisoners are considered to be prisoners who show the strongest reaction to the slightest disrespect, and if they are assaulted, they not only resist well, but also they will definitely take revenge for the assault. The mentioned prisoners, see every dispute as a vital battle to determine the winner, and from their view point, the outcome of this battle has a great impact on whether or not they will be injured in the future. Also, in any quarrel, the hard prisoner considers resorting to violence as the first option to resolve the conflict
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