ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the key theoretical perspectives underpinning this analysis, focuses on Banduran theory of situational moral disengagement as a means to making sense of institutional violence. Bandura provides an important set of cognitive mechanisms that allow for moral abdication to occur, and yet these mechanisms miss the superseding structural elements of an institution that trigger these mechanisms. The chapter also focuses on the Institutional Cases to describe situational violence as it unfolded in Canadian institutional settings. Dubbed the Institutional Cases, a string of lawsuits of this nature laid bare the extremely violent conditions residents experienced while institutionalized. It provides a comparative analysis of these examples, and describe several key organizational factors that may influence and nurture moral abandonment and the creation of an ethos of violence. The chapter details Bandura's schematic in order to rate institutions according to how likely moral abdication — and therefore violence — is to occur.
