I am an ex-prison officer who has witnessed not only an increasing number of offenders of violence against women (VAW) coming into prison, but also a change in their treatment both from other prisoners and the prison service. Belief systems are imported and exported between prisons and communities (Clemmer, 1940; Adams, 1992; Mears, et al, 2013). I am therefore exploring how violence and VAW has changed in prisons through a review of policy and the accounts of prison officers. Data will be analysed through a 'lens of complexity' that views prisons as complex adaptive systems.