ABSTRACT
The Conflicts and Violence in Prison project team (CVP) examined interpersonal violence – that is, fights, assaults and other forms of deliberate harm – among prisoners. The prison context is a specialised area within which to study violence because of the unusual characteristics of prisons as total institutions (Goffman 1961). However, the innovative contribution that the CVP makes to research into violence is to examine violent incidents in the context of conflicts.
