Prison violence is a persistent global challenge, yet its forms and drivers are shaped by distinct local institutional, cultural, social, and political contexts. While international scholarship on prison violence continues to grow, empirical research focused on prisons in Aotearoa New Zealand remains scarce. Moreover, dominant frameworks—largely shaped by US and Euro-centric, particularly quantitative, perspectives—often fail to capture the complexity of prison violence in other jurisdictions.
As part of a wider comparative international empirical study of prison violence in male prisons in England, Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand (undertaken with Dr Kate Gooch, University of Bath), this paper presents findings from Aotearoa New Zealand, particularly focusing on assaults against correctional staff and the broader foundations of prison safety. Drawing on prisoner and staff interviews, prisoner surveys, and institutional data, the paper introduces a new conceptual framework that distinguishes between prisoner-on-staff and prisoner-on-prisoner violence—revealing key factors behind the rise in staff assaults in the jurisdictions studied.
Challenging control-focused safety models, the paper proposes a more holistic approach to prison safety grounded in individual, organisational, environmental, and relational factors. This session invites researchers, practitioners, and policymakers to rethink what safety means in carceral settings—and how it might be better achieved.
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Dr Katherine Doolin
Senior Lecturer in Law, University of Auckland, New Zealand
Dr Katherine Doolin is a Senior Lecturer in the Faculty of Law at Waipapa Taumata Rau | The University of Auckland, Aotearoa New Zealand, having previously held academic positions at the University of Birmingham and the University of Kent in the UK. She has also been a Visiting Scholar at the University of Cambridge and the University of Bath in the UK, and KU Leuven in Belgium. Dr Doolin researches and teaches in the areas of criminal law and criminal justice, with particular expertise in prison violence, prison gangs, and prison safety; restorative justice; and youth justice. She has recently completed an international, comparative empirical study of prison violence in male prisons in England, Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand, and is currently undertaking a research programme on restorative approaches in prisons with the UK Restorative Justice Council.
