Advanced Search

Journal Navigation

Journal Home

Subscriptions

Archive

Contact Us

Table of Contents

Click here to sign up for SAGE Journal Email Alerts today!

Sign In to gain access to subscriptions and/or personal tools.
International Journal of Offender Therapy and Comparative Criminology
This Article
Right arrow Full Text (PDF)
Right arrow All Versions of this Article:
0306624X08314181v1
52/5/584    most recent
Right arrow References
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Right arrow Citation Map
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in Web of Science
Right arrow Similar articles in PubMed
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Add to Saved Citations
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrowRequest Permissions
Right arrow Request Reprints
Right arrow Add to My Marked Citations
Citing Articles
Right arrow Citing Articles via Web of Science (1)
Right arrow Citing Articles via Google Scholar
Right arrow Citing Articles via Scopus
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Ashkar, P. J.
Right arrow Articles by Kenny, D. T.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
PubMed
Right arrow PubMed Citation
Right arrow Articles by Ashkar, P. J.
Right arrow Articles by Kenny, D. T.
Social Bookmarking
Add to CiteULike   Add to Complore   Add to Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us   Add to Digg   Add to Reddit   Add to Technorati   Add to Twitter  
What's this?

Views From the Inside

Young Offenders' Subjective Experiences of Incarceration

Peter J. Ashkar

The University of Sydney, Australia

Dianna T. Kenny

The University of Sydney, Australia, D.Kenny{at}usyd.edu.au

This study examined the incarceration experiences of 16 adolescent males in a maximum-security detention facility. A semistructured interview was conducted with each detainee and recorded on audiocassette. Data were analysed using phenomenological descriptive methodology. Detainees' experiences were characterised by a prison culture of bullying, substance use, and antagonism with youth workers; inadequate service provision and a lack of rehabilitative programming; and a sense of loss through reduced autonomy and dislocation from important others. These experiences gave rise to a range of negative feelings and emotions and promoted thinking about past and future behaviours. The incarceration experience placed detainees into a state of readiness for positive change but failed to provide them with the necessary skills to effect and sustain this change. Promotion of antisocial behaviour, lack of deterrence, and insufficient rehabilitative programming were identified as factors of the incarceration setting likely to contribute to the high rates of recidivism.

Key Words: young offender • incarceration • deterrence • rehabilitation • recidivism

This version was published on October 1, 2008

International Journal of Offender Therapy and Comparative Criminology, Vol. 52, No. 5, 584-597 (2008)
DOI: 10.1177/0306624X08314181
Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Complore Complore   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us   Add to Digg Digg   Add to Reddit Reddit   Add to Technorati Technorati   Add to Twitter Twitter    What's this?