Multiple Dynamics Of Prison Violence

There are multiple dynamics of prison violence that makes it such a dangerous place to live. Violence occurs in prison because there are good inmates and bad inmates while there are good officers and bad officers. This is one of the ironies of imprisonment, how prison is supposed to stop violence but in many cases it increases it.
According to Marx, escalation is the clearest illustration of self defeating measures of social control in which intervention contributes to rule breaking violence. Escalation produces increase in frequency and seriousness of original violations, likewise creating new categories of violators and victims. Escalation also denotes commitment to violence in forms that are a reaction to social control (Welch 79-80)
One of the dynamics of prison
Marx states that they “remind us that the appearance of deviant behavior may stem from self fulfillment of initially erroneous beliefs and authorities about a group or an individual” (Welch 84). This definition applies the labeling theory. Labeling is very common in prison because people are constantly degraded, and this increases violence and reinforces hostility.
The third dynamic is that sanctions create secondary gains, which provide another source for escalation. “Secondary gains engender instrumental violence,” because its good to be bad (Welch 88). Since its good to be bad, and bad actions are not allowed in prison, this gives one secondary gains. To also increase their gains, inmates will likely threaten others for more power and to demote others.
Nonenforcement is when authorities intentionally permit rule breaking by purposefully not taking action. Nonenforcement and lack of training can lead to inmate v inmate violence, and it also allows inmates to prey on the weak and outcasts (Welch 93). Nonenforcement also leads to staff v inmate violence because when staff members are violent to inmates, it is used as unofficial force (Welch