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Prison and Group Formation

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Prison Gangs Through the Lens of Tuckman’s Theory of Group Formation

Money, narcotics, and protection, what more could a prisoner ask for? If that question is ever solved then the answer to the prison gang epidemic may be found. Prison gangs, by nature, are a group just like any other, and thus go through the same group formation process as any other group. A key part of this process is adjourning, the stage where group members are satisfied with the group and leave. However, the adjourning stage hasn’t occurred as much in prison gangs as people would like. By showing that prison gangs go through the rest of the stages of group formation, it will be shown that they could go through the final stage of adjourning.
Tuckman’s Group Formation Theory Bruce Tuckman first created his group formation theory in 1965 after studying 50 articles on the topic of group formation. He extrapolated from those 50 articles a general concept for group formation. This concept of group formation recognizes that every group has a task that it must complete, and interpersonal relationships between the group members (Tuckman 1965). This concept originally stated that the group goes through four different stages of dealing with the task and interpersonal relationships: forming, storming, norming, and performing (Tuckman 1965). A fifth category, adjourning, was added in 1977 (Tuckman and Jensen). Forming is the stage in which group members test the boundaries of both the interpersonal relationships of the group and of the group task (Tuckman 1965). Group members attempt to work out what is acceptable in their interpersonal relations with other members by testing the boundaries of these relationships and by looking for guidance from well-established members and norms (Tuckman 1965). In this stage group members will also attempt to realize the task by defining its goals and how the

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