An Exploratory Analysis of Vengeful Episodes in Prisoners

Revenge is a retaliatory behavior following a perceived harm to one’s well-being. It can take the form of passive aggression, verbal aggression, physical aggression, and extreme violence. In fact, revenge is related to homicides, school shootings, and bombings. Despite the need to understand revenge, there is a dearth of research examining its different components, thus making it difficult to prevent and treat. Even less is known about revenge among prisoners, which is especially concerning given their propensity for aggression. Much of the research on revenge focuses on undergraduate students and the general population. As such, it is important to understand vengeful experiences among prisoners. In this study, 184 participants were recruited from a federal prison in California to complete the trait anger scale, general questions about revenge, questions about incident reports, and a specific vengeful experience. In terms of the specific vengeful experience, participants answered questions about their triggers, cognitions during the event, what they did, their emotions prior to and after engaging in revenge, the intensity of their urges, and outcomes. Anger was the most frequent of the listed emotions experienced at the time of the provocation (69%), and demandingness was the most frequent irrational belief reported about the provocation (56.5%). Additionally, many participants reported positive, short-term outcomes after taking revenge, but reported negative long-term outcomes. Treatment implications for working with prisoners and revenge are discussed, including the importance of using a cost-benefit analysis and challenging demandingness.