Rehabilitation requires us to understand how a person’s history shapes their mind. Behavioural science shows that what we want in life is rarely an original thought. Instead, we copy what we see others doing, a process known as mimetic desire.
Throughout human history, copying the group was a survival tactic to avoid making deadly mistakes. In modern society, especially a modern prison, however, basic needs like food and shelter are already met. With survival guaranteed, our brain redirects this deep-seated urge to copy toward seeking status, adopting subcultures, and fitting in with a local group.
Humans don’t naturally know what they want; instead, we look to others to figure it out.
Because this process happens subconsciously, people in the justice system often believe their urges and actions are entirely their own choices. In reality, they have absorbed them from their surroundings. When we tell vulnerable people to “make better choices,” we are often asking them to fight hardwired survival instincts. When you combine this biological urge with the intense, high-pressure social ladder of a prison, it creates massive challenges for reducing reoffending.
Pre-Custodial Vulnerability:
To understand the power of mimetic desire within the prison environment, we need to first recognise that the population entering the justice system is already disproportionately vulnerable to mimetic contagion. Individuals do not suddenly become susceptible to peer modelling upon incarceration, psychological research shows that from childhood, their environment has often modelled distorted behaviours for them.
1. Lack of Positive Role Models: Many people entering the justice system have experienced a high number of Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs), A report by Pact, the prison advice charity, indicates that up to 90% of young people with a conviction experienced at least one ACE. In environments dealing with family instability or neglect, the developing brain lacks positive role models, people demonstrating “Thick Desires” like getting an education or holding a steady job. Without these positive examples to copy, the brain naturally defaults to the most visible and dominant figures nearby, which are often local criminals or gang members.
2. Chasing “Thin Desires: Research into the psychology of poverty shows that in disadvantaged areas, traditional paths to success (like building a career or buying a home) are often blocked. However, the human need for status doesn’t just disappear; it finds a new route. People start chasing “Thin Desires”, things like designer clothes, expensive cars, or aggressive posturing, to prove their worth. Therefore, crime is rarely just a deliberate choice to be bad. Often, it is a borrowed desire to gain the same respect and status modelled by the dominant figures in a marginalised community.
Mimetic Rivalry in custody
Once a person is incarcerated, their natural drive to copy others intensifies. A modern prison is a closed, heavily concentrated environment where basic things like everyday goods, personal freedom, and privacy are extremely scarce, creating intense competition and rivalry.
- Prison Status: Inside prison, the ways a person can gain status are drastically reduced. Inmates are forced into a competition for a very limited amount of social standing, whether that means controlling a wing, securing illicit goods, or simply using physical intimidation; because everyone is chasing the same narrow goals, rivalry is inevitable.
- Contagious Violence: Violence in prison is rarely random. It is usually the explosive result of this intense competition. When two individuals or rival groups want the exact same limited resource (e.g. respect, territory, dominance), they become direct threats to one another. In this setting, violence is contagious. A single act of aggression sets a new baseline for behaviour, and others quickly feel forced to copy it just to protect their own safety and status.
- Reinforcing Criminal Behaviour: The physical and social setup of a prison forces people into close, constant contact with the exact criminal behaviours the justice system is trying to fix. If the most dominant, highly visible people on a prison wing are heavily involved in gang culture, the natural human urge to fit in will inevitably pull vulnerable, newly arrived individuals right toward those harmful, anti-social behaviours.
Prosocial Mimesis
If we look at human behaviour within the justice system through the lens of mimetic desire, traditional rehabilitative strategies that rely on isolated cognitive-behavioural therapy or punitive deterrence are fundamentally incomplete. Rehabilitation cannot be achieved in a vacuum; it requires the deliberate restructuring of the prison’s mimetic ecosystem.
1. Relatable “Mediators”: Rehabilitation requires the introduction of powerful, prosocial models that inmates actually want to imitate. Traditional authority figures (prison officers, psychologists) often fail as mimetic models because the social distance between them and the inmate is too vast. Effective rehabilitation relies on peer-led mentorship, utilising former offenders or respected, long-term inmates who have desisted from crime. These individuals serve as credible, relatable mediators who can model “Thick Desires” (emotional regulation, educational pursuit, and community building).
2. Cultivating Environments of “Thick Desire”: Institutions must transition from managing “Thin Desires” (preventing violence and contraband flow) to actively cultivating environments where “Thick Desires” can flourish. This means providing vocational training, higher education, and creative programs not merely as “busywork,” but as avenues for personal growth and success upon release and reintegration into society. When authentic skill mastery becomes the dominant modelled behaviour, the mimetic contagion works for rehabilitation rather than against it.
- Example: The Clink Restaurant initiative (operating in UK prisons like HMP Brixton and HMP High Down) trains prisoners in high-end culinary arts and front-of-house service. Additionally, Timpson’s prison training academies provide highly sought-after, visible vocational pathways that guarantee employment upon release, replacing illicit status with professional prestige.
3. Dismantling Zero-Sum Rivalry Through Restorative Justice
Mimetic desire naturally escalates into mimetic rivalry when the desired object (in prison, often status or respect) is scarce. Traditional punitive segregation often fuels this rivalry by creating an “us vs. them” dynamic. Implementing restorative justice frameworks provides a mechanism to interrupt the contagion of violence. Instead of mimicking aggression or retaliation to save face, inmates are guided through structured conflict resolution. This models accountability and empathy, demonstrating that status can be maintained or restored through dialogue rather than dominance, effectively short-circuiting the cycle of violent mimesis.
- Example: The Sycamore Tree Project, delivered in various UK prisons, and dedicated restorative units like those piloted at HMP Warren Hill, actively disrupt violent mimesis through structured victim-offender awareness.
4. Architecting Therapeutic Communities: In large, overcrowded general population wings, the most aggressive, anti-social models naturally dominate the visual and social landscape, forcing others to imitate them for survival. Prisons can restructure living arrangements into smaller, intentional “Therapeutic Communities”. By breaking the population into smaller cohorts bound by shared rehabilitative goals (e.g. addiction recovery or intensive educational programs), the institution limits exposure to anti-social models. In these micro-environments, the dominant mimetic current is heavily concentrated on prosocial recovery and mutual accountability.
- Example: Category B prisons like HMP Dovegate host purpose-built Therapeutic Communities where intense peer accountability and daily group therapy shape the dominant mimetic culture.
5. Transforming Correctional Staff into Conscious Models: Staff behaviour still heavily influences the baseline mimetic environment. An environment dominated by authoritarian aggression breeds reciprocal aggression and defiance in inmates. Correctional officer training must incorporate an understanding of mimetic contagion. When staff are trained in de-escalation, emotional regulation, and respectful communication, they alter the environmental baseline. While they may not be the primary “mediators” of an inmate’s personal aspirations, their consistent modelling of fairness and emotional control deprives the anti-social mimetic cycle of the friction it needs to escalate.
- Example: Halden Prison in Norway is globally renowned for “dynamic security,” where officers eat, play sports, and socialise with inmates. In the UK, the Five Minute Interventions (FMI) training aims to turn everyday staff-prisoner conversations into rehabilitative, prosocial modelling opportunities.
6. Amplifying External Prosocial Tethers: Institutions must heavily invest in bridging the gap between inmates and prosocial external networks. This goes beyond standard visitation; it involves integrating community leaders, local business owners, and healthy family members directly into the rehabilitative process. By bringing the outside world in, the prison introduces external mimetic models, reminding the localised brain that broader, healthier hierarchies exist beyond the prison walls.
- Example: Initiatives like Key4Life bring corporate executives from major UK businesses (like Sony and Sir Robert McAlpine) directly into prisons to mentor young men. The New Futures Network (part of HMPPS) acts as a broker, constantly bringing external employers into the prison estate to model professional expectations and offer tangible routes out of criminality.
The success of initiatives like Therapeutic Communities and peer mentorship within secure estates proves the rehabilitative power of positive social modelling. Building on these achievements, organisations can harness mimetic theory not just to guide individual interventions, but as a core principle of overarching institutional design. By recognising that human beings are inherently hyper-imitative, future prison innovation can focus on actively engineering the visibility of prosocial desire.
Emma Smith
Director of Writing
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