Prison Violence and the Search for Recognition and Respect

This workshop is part of SCCJR’s Social Analysis of Penalities Across Boundaries series which is co-organised by Professor Richard Sparks and Professor Máximo Sozzo.

Speaker: Professor Kate Gooch, University of Bath.

4pm UK | 12 noon Argentina | 5pm Spain

Abstract:

There is no shortage of research on prison violence. However, scholarship has been dominated by quantitative studies testing the relevance of importation and deprivation factors. Whilst it is now recognised that it is the interaction between the individual and the prison environment that is most salient, too little research has sought to interrogate or test this relationship. Even less research does so by focusing on the moral dimensions and character of the prison. Yet high levels of prison violence are a symptom of morally depleted environments. Drawing on ethnographic and qualitative research, this seminar examines the relevance of the moral context to how, when and why young prisoners turn to violence. It is argued that high levels of prison violence are not inevitable. Rather we have the prisons – and the levels of violence – we create.

Bio:

Kate Gooch is Professor of Criminology and Criminal Justice at the University of Bath. She is a leading researcher into problems of imprisonment in England and Wales and her work has focused on questions including violence, debt and self-harm in English prisons. Her most recent book is Prison Violence: The Search for Recognition and Respect, Palgrave Macmillan (2025), and this will provide the basis for this workshop.