Crowding and Prison Violence

Abstract

A review of the literature on social density/crowding effects indicates the need for a process explanation of the density, violence, crowding relationship. The mediational variables that should be included in such an explanation are age, transiency, and their relation with social density and crowding, as described in the model. Unique to this model is the treatment of crowding as a cognitive-evaluative state and as a dependent variable. In an attempt to indicate its utility, the model is, in the final segment of the article, applied to a concrete situation.