Many articles and research papers on prison disorder make no clear distinction between prisoner assaults on staff and assaults on other prisoners, and simply pool assault categories (and often other forms of prisoner misconduct as well) into an overall prison violence or disorder index (e.g. Farrington and Nuttall, 1980; Quinsey and Varney, 1977). This tendency to think about disorder in global terms reflects the prevailing dominance of systemic rather than situational approaches to prison control. That is, researchers interested in situational influences in prison have been generally concerned with diagnosing ‘sick’ institutions, rather than pinpointing the precise nature of the malady. There is clearly some sense to this logic and in at least one study a moderate correlation (0.57) has been reported between levels of prisoner-prisoner and prisoner-staff assaults (McCorkle et al., 1995). However, there is also good reason for thinking that the dynamics of assaults against staff will be quite different from those of assaults on other prisoners. The very nature of the prison guard's role – the exercise of authority over an involuntary clientele – means that prisoners and guards have a potentially fraught relationship (Hepburn, 1989).

Nature of the problem

Definition and incidence

Prisoner violence towards staff involves intentional physical contact, and includes pushing, spitting, throwing objects, striking and attacking with a weapon. According to Bowker (1980: 129), physical violence by prisoners can be distinguished from a range of other forms of victimisation that a prison officer might suffer.