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Violence and disorder in longterm prisons: the influence of institutional environments
Author(s) -
BOTTOMS ANTHONY
Publication year - 1992
Publication title -
criminal behaviour and mental health
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.63
H-Index - 54
eISSN - 1471-2857
pISSN - 0957-9664
DOI - 10.1002/cbm.1992.2.2.126
Subject(s) - prison , psychology , criminology , psychiatry , term (time) , mental health , social psychology , physics , quantum mechanics
There has been lively debate about whether people classified as suffering from psychopathic disorder should be located in special hospitals. By a curious twist of timing, this debate has occurred more or less simultaneously with a period of reappraisal of aspects of the long‐term prison system for male offenders, with a special focus on incidents of violence and disruption (see Home Office, 1984; Bottoms & Light, 1987; Bottomley & Hay, 1991) . Presumably, if the special hospitals were to cease to hold those classified as psychopathic, long‐term prisons would be one of the alternative locations for such people. That might seem likely to increase violent incidents in such prisons, although, as the evidence and arguments in this paper will seek to show, this is by no means a certain outcome of a policy change of this kind. There is every justification for mental health professionals and those interested in prisons becoming more aware of one another's problems and preoccupations.