Rozprawy doktorskie na temat „Young male offenders”

Adolescence is a risk period for offending and head injury (HI), with rates of HI in young offender populations frequently exceeding those in the community. Poor parenting practices have been associated with increased risk of offending and development of reactive and proactive aggression. Preliminary research suggests HI may discriminate offender profiles within young offenders, but the influence of HI on offending alongside parenting and aggression is less well known. This study explored the relationships between parenting practices, reactive and proactive aggression, HI and offending in a sample of male young offenders from a Young Offender Institute (n=98) using self report data. A history of at least one HI was reported by 73.5%, with 61.1% reporting a knock out from their worst HI. Poor supervision emerged as a key predictor: predicting knock out history, indicators of offending and reactive and proactive aggression. Repeated HI was predictive of reactive aggression and a knock out history predicted earlier age of first offence. The impact of HI on outcomes via neuropsychological sequelea or as a “marker” for contextual risk factors such as poor supervision and reactive aggression are examined. Clinical implications for young offenders are discussed.

Objective Adolescence is recognised as a risk period for offending and head injury (HI), with higher rates of HI found in the young offender (YO) population compared to the general population. Drug and alcohol use has also been associated with increased risk of offending. This study aims to explore the relationships between HI, Post-concussion symptoms (PCS), reactive and proactive aggression, and offending behaviour in YOs, whilst considering the effects of drug and alcohol use on these relationships. Participants A sample of ninety eight males was recruited from a Young Offender Institute: the age range was 16-18 years of age with an average age of 17. Design A between subjects cross sectional design was employed. Participants were recruited using an opportunistic sampling strategy. Main Measures Self-rated/report measures of: HI, Post-Concussion Symptoms (Adapted Rivermead Post-Concussion Symptom Questionnaire), Aggression (Reactive-Proactive Scale), criminal histories, and drug and alcohol history. Results HI was reported by 73.5% of the overall sample, with 61.1% reporting a “knock out”. Frequency and severity of HI was associated with significantly higher PCS scores. Examination of covariate- drug and alcohol use did not affect these relationships. PCS were a significant predictor of reactive aggression, total number of convictions and number of previous violent convictions. However, dosage of HI (severity and frequency) was not a significant predictor of reactive aggression or criminal profiles. Conclusions There appears to be a dose-response effect of severity and frequency of HI on PCS, with PCS predicting reactive aggression. Such symptoms may compromise functions and lead to increased aggression. This highlights the need for better screening and interventions for HI and on-going symptoms in YOs.

Self-harming and suicidal behaviour in prison are serious concerns, given the continued rise in incidents occurring, particularly in the male estate (Ministry of Justice, 2017). This thesis assesses both objective and subjective measures of impulsivity and aggression; two psychological constructs which have shown promise in enhancing our understanding of these behaviours in respect to the management, treatment and support of those at risk of self-harming. Subjective measures included the Barratt Impulsiveness Scale (BIS-11; Patton, Stanford, & Barratt, 1995) and the Buss-Perry Aggression Questionnaire (BPAQ; Buss & Perry, 1992) and objective measures included four, computer-based behavioural tasks used to assess impulsive decision making (Delay Discounting and Information Sampling Task) and response inhibition (Go/No-Go and Stop Signal Tasks). These measures were tested in young (n = 75) and adult (n = 150), male offenders, in three groups; those currently self-harming and on an ACCT, those assessed as vulnerable and on an ACCT but not currently self-harming and those in the general prison population. The results identified important differences between young and adult offenders; with subjective measures being better able to discriminate between all of the groups in adult offenders than in young offenders. Objective measures of impulsive behaviour were also able to discriminate between all groups in adult male offenders, whereas, in young offenders, these measures only discriminated between those who are vulnerable to self-harm (both at imminent risk and with a history) and the general prison population. These findings strongly support the notion that interventions with individuals who are currently self-harming should not only focus on the prevention of self-harming behaviours but also work to address the negative emotional states associated with this behaviour. Whilst our theoretical knowledge of the different dimensions of aggression and impulsive behaviour is limited, this thesis gives rise to the possibility of using existing programmes in a new and more holistic way.

The aim of this study is to explore the experiences and evaluations of young male offenders who were diverted to family group conferencing in order to improve current services. An exploratory research design was chosen to obtain an understanding of what these young male offenders experienced during their conferencing and also to seek out their recommendations for future improvement of the family group conferencing diversion programme. This study comprised two samples which were purposively selected. The first sample was made up of ten young male offenders and the second sample comprised of the parents and /or guardians of the young male offenders. The data was collected using structured interview schedules. The data was collected on separate occasions for the two samples. Each interview lasted about 30- 40 minutes each. The findings of this study showed that there is still a need to train probation officers on appropriate implementation of family group conferencing and that families also have a role to play towards succefull implementation of diversion programmes. It is evident from the findings that young offenders need their families to support and care for them during difficult situations, as purported by the systems theory whereby society is regarded as a system with different parts and families are an important part of this system. Young offenders belong to families and families are part of communities and society. It is also important to note that victims are part of families, thus also part of society and the system. Family group conferencing provide an opportunity for all these parts to meet in a mediated environment to address the harm caused and make amends. The findings of this study also showed that there is a need to educate the general public about child justice legislation and the emerging trends in the field of child justice including diversion programmes.

The thesis examines the background, theory and effects of imprisoning young, male adult offenders (aged 18-21) with adult male offenders (over 21 years). The Introduction forms Chapter 1. The initial ‘needs analysis’ is described here; how Young Adult Offenders are currently being incarcerated with adults, from a little established research base evaluating the practice. The Systematic review is described in Chapter 2 and scopes the literature from journals held in selected databases of published research relating to the topic of integrating young offenders with adults in adult prisons. Searches yielded reports of the target population imprisoned with adults and these informed on the effects of mixing the different-aged populations. This included a qualitative study examining the young people’s views, and quantitative research reporting how they conducted themselves and coped in prison. Seven papers were included in the final review and each was critically appraised based on type of study and methodology followed. The Empirical research study is set out in Chapter 3 and follows qualitative methodology, specifically Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA). From analysis of the participants’ views, it details over-arching themes concerning locus of control, coping styles and issues relating to the development of identity. The results highlighted five main themes: 1. Elements of vulnerability; how the self and others are perceived and protected and how weaknesses are exploited, 2. The complexities of adjusting to prison, 3. Being concerned about safety in prison, 4. How activities are perceived and utilised and 5. How help is identified and accessed. These are discussed in terms of the literature and theory. Limitations are discussed. A Psychometric assessment: the Emotional Problems Scales (EPS: Prout & Strohmer, 1991) is critiqued in Chapter 4, selected for its utility with the target age group. The Discussion of the whole thesis is presented in Chapter 5, with practical implications for future practice and effective management of young people held in adult prisons.

This study represents the first attempt to evaluate the predictive validity of the Level of Service Inventory-Ontario Revision (LSI-OR; Andrews, Bonta, & Wormith, 1995) on young offenders. The LSI-OR is a risk/need assessment measure designed to assess risk of recidivism and other offender problems, and to classify offenders for supervision and treatment (Andrews & Bonta, 1998). Although the scale has been used with young offenders, it has not yet been adequately validated with this population. The sample consisted of 154 16- to 18-year old, Caucasian, male, young offenders from Northern Ontario, who had been sentenced to custody or community (probation) terms. Following a 3.8-year follow-up period, 50.6% of the sample had been reconvicted, with 20.1% for a violent offence. Recidivists scored significantly higher than nonrecidivists on the LSI-OR total score and on six of the eight risk and need subscales. Correlations between the LSI-OR total score and general and violent recidivism were .46 and .31, respectively. ROC analyses indicated significant effects for LSI-OR total and combined scales with general offending (AUCs of .77 to .80) and with violent offending (AUCs of .72 to .74). Controlling for location (custody-community), hierarchical multiple regression analyses revealed the LSI-OR's incremental predictive validity for general, violent, and nonviolent recidivism. The General Risk/Need and Responsivity Sections made unique contributions to the final model of binary nonviolent recidivism. General Risk/Need contributed to the prediction of binary violent recidivism. Among the General Risk/Need subsections, Criminal history and Leisure/recreation as well as Criminal history and Education/employment uniquely contributed to the model of nonviolent and violent charges, respectively. The results support the use of the LSI-OR instrument with 'older' young offenders, especially those in the community, but should be cross validated on another (larger) sample of 16- to 18-year old offenders. Future research exploring the role of young offenders' responsivity concerns, in particular their motivational problems and use of denial/minimization, is suggested because these items also discriminated between recidivists and nonrecidivists in the current study.

This research utilised a range of deterministic and stochastic analyses to establish whether Queensland's juvenile justice system processes Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal young male offenders differently. The impetus for this research stemmed from the continued high rates of Aboriginal over-representation within Australia's criminal justice system, despite diversionary measures to reduce such over-representation, and a commitment by the Queensland Government to reduce by 50% the number of Aboriginal peoples in custody by the year 2011. There are two competing hypotheses concerning the cause of this over-representation, (i) external factors such as socioeconomic disadvantage, unemployment or substance abuse, or (ii) systemic disparity within the criminal justice system. For this research, disparity is defined as the unacceptable use of discrimination; discrimination can be appropriate if it is used to define or enhance a situation, such as discriminating between offenders who are recidivists and those who are first time offenders. The inappropriate use of discrimination occurs for example, when harsher sentences are issued to offenders based on non-legal factors such as race or gender. Systemic disparity is therefore used here to represent the inappropriate use of discrimination against an offender by the criminal justice system. The second hypothesis, one of systemic disparity, provided the framework for this research, which posed the following primary question: Is there quantifiable evidence to support the existence of disparity acting against young male Aboriginal offenders within Queensland's juvenile justice system? Two separate but complementary studies were designed to address this issue: the pathways study and the trajectory study. The pathways study utilised 20,648 finalised appearances for Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal young male offenders in Queensland's juvenile courts, during 1999 to 2003. Three custodial decision-making stages (police custody, remand, and sentencing) were examined and two questions initially posed: Does the custodial decision made at one stage of the juvenile justice system impact on a subsequent custodial decision-making stage? Does criminal history, Aboriginal status, offence type or an interaction of these factors significantly influence the probability of (i) detention in police custody (ii) court remand (iii) a custodial order at sentencing? It was recognised that other legally relevant factors such as family structure and stability, school attendance and community ties might also influence these custodial decisions; however, for the purposes of this research it was not possible to include these variables in the analyses. Controlling for criminal history, findings from logistic regression analyses indicated that being detained in police custody increased the odds of being remanded into custody, and being remanded into custody increased the odds of a custodial order. Whilst Aboriginal status was not a consistent factor at any of these three custodial stages, there was clear evidence of disparity acting against the young male Aboriginal offender, particularly early in their criminal career. To examine these disparities further, these three custodial stages were modeled as eight processing pathways: four of which resulted in a custodial order and four in a noncustodial order. Using this processing model, a third question was posed: Do young Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal male offenders have different custodial pathways? Findings indicated that Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal young male offenders were in general, processed along similar custodial pathways that did not include police custody, remand or a custodial order. However, young male Aboriginal offenders were less likely than equivalent non-Aboriginal offenders to have been processed along this pathway and more likely to be processed along the pathways that included remand. It was found that young offenders with a chronic criminal history were more likely to be processed along these remand pathways, and Aboriginal offenders were more likely to have a chronic criminal history than non-Aboriginal offenders; there was clear evidence of disparity at specific custodial stages of the system. In addition, as young male Aboriginal offenders progressed deeper into the system there was evidence of cumulative disparity, particularly along the remand pathways, meaning that the probability of being in custody increases as the offender progresses from one custodial stage to the next custodial stage. Given the existence of disparity, acting within the juvenile justice system and against the young male Aboriginal offender, it was important to formulate viable solutions to such disparity, particularly in light of the Queensland government's commitment to reduce Aboriginal offenders in custody by 50%. Deterministic analyses and computer simulations were used to test the viability of various reduction scenarios suggested by the data. Despite in some instances, different results from the deterministic analyses and the computer simulations, overall findings indicated that to reduce custodial disparity whether at the remand stage, the custodial order stage, or in custody overall (the summation of police custody, remand and custodial orders) that reducing remand, regardless of whether the young offender had been in police custody or not, was the best overall solution. The trajectory study built on the findings of the pathways study, which had identified criminal history as an important factor in the processing pathways of young male Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal offenders. Using the semi-parametric group based method, the criminal trajectories of Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal young male offenders in Queensland were modeled. These trajectories were based on the finalised appearances of two cohorts of young offenders aged 10 to 17 years of age: those born in 1983 and 1984 and who had turned 18 years of age in 2001 and 2002 respectively. All of these young male offenders had entered the adult system when they turned 17 years of age, and this data provided their complete juvenile history in Queensland. Prior analyses using this method had not considered Aboriginal status or race as a determining factor in these trajectory models, nor had these models been validated either internally or externally in published works. For this research, internal validity was considered as the correct classification of offenders into trajectory groups, and external validity as the ability to reproduce these results in a second or subsequent sample of juvenile offenders. Two questions were therefore posed in the trajectory study: Do young Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal male offenders have different criminal trajectories? Can the predicted model(s) be validated, both internally and externally? Initial findings indicated that the optimal trajectory models selected on prior knowledge and the Bayesian Information Criterion did not validate internally. This finding brought into question the trajectory results of other published works that had not internally validated their models. The models finally selected as optimal indicated that Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal young male offenders did not have a common criminal trajectory and could not be modeled as one population. Both Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal young offenders were modeled by a low-frequency group, a late-onset group, and a chronic trajectory group. However, the young male Aboriginal offender was more likely than the non-Aboriginal to have been in the chronic or the late onset group and less likely to have been in the lowfrequency group. External validation utilised an innovative but simple method that utilised all of the data in the modeling process along with a sample of this same data for validation purposes: 10% of the criminal profiles, which were characteristic of the trajectory groups, and a further 5% of randomly selected profiles were chosen for validation. All of the characteristic profiles, but only 50% of the randomly selected profiles were validated, and of the latter, the majority not validated was in the late-onset group. In total, 79.2% of the Aboriginal trajectories and 85.6% of the non-Aboriginal criminal trajectories were correctly externally validated. Overall, there are two important implications from this research for government. First, even though young male Aboriginal offenders are more likely to have a chronic criminal history than non-Aboriginal offenders, this factor does not account for all of the observed disparity acting against the young Aboriginal offender within Queensland's juvenile justice system: there is evidence of disparity within the system that is unaccounted for by either offence type or criminal history. Second, given this chronic criminal history, systemic solutions to systemic disparity whilst viable, will not ultimately resolve this problem: they are only short-term measures at the end of a very long justice system. Longer-term solutions are needed to address external factors such as socio-economic disadvantage, unemployment and substance abuse in Aboriginal communities, before these young people are exposed to the system. Continuing to concentrate on systemic solutions, to such an entrenched problem as Aboriginal overrepresentation and disparity, is a misdirection of system resources and is inconsistent with social justice.

This research utilised a range of deterministic and stochastic analyses to establish whether Queensland's juvenile justice system processes Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal young male offenders differently. The impetus for this research stemmed from the continued high rates of Aboriginal over-representation within Australia's criminal justice system, despite diversionary measures to reduce such over-representation, and a commitment by the Queensland Government to reduce by 50% the number of Aboriginal peoples in custody by the year 2011. There are two competing hypotheses concerning the cause of this over-representation, (i) external factors such as socioeconomic disadvantage, unemployment or substance abuse, or (ii) systemic disparity within the criminal justice system. For this research, disparity is defined as the unacceptable use of discrimination; discrimination can be appropriate if it is used to define or enhance a situation, such as discriminating between offenders who are recidivists and those who are first time offenders. The inappropriate use of discrimination occurs for example, when harsher sentences are issued to offenders based on non-legal factors such as race or gender. Systemic disparity is therefore used here to represent the inappropriate use of discrimination against an offender by the criminal justice system. The second hypothesis, one of systemic disparity, provided the framework for this research, which posed the following primary question: Is there quantifiable evidence to support the existence of disparity acting against young male Aboriginal offenders within Queensland's juvenile justice system? Two separate but complementary studies were designed to address this issue: the pathways study and the trajectory study. The pathways study utilised 20,648 finalised appearances for Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal young male offenders in Queensland's juvenile courts, during 1999 to 2003. Three custodial decision-making stages (police custody, remand, and sentencing) were examined and two questions initially posed: Does the custodial decision made at one stage of the juvenile justice system impact on a subsequent custodial decision-making stage? Does criminal history, Aboriginal status, offence type or an interaction of these factors significantly influence the probability of (i) detention in police custody (ii) court remand (iii) a custodial order at sentencing? It was recognised that other legally relevant factors such as family structure and stability, school attendance and community ties might also influence these custodial decisions; however, for the purposes of this research it was not possible to include these variables in the analyses. Controlling for criminal history, findings from logistic regression analyses indicated that being detained in police custody increased the odds of being remanded into custody, and being remanded into custody increased the odds of a custodial order. Whilst Aboriginal status was not a consistent factor at any of these three custodial stages, there was clear evidence of disparity acting against the young male Aboriginal offender, particularly early in their criminal career. To examine these disparities further, these three custodial stages were modeled as eight processing pathways: four of which resulted in a custodial order and four in a noncustodial order. Using this processing model, a third question was posed: Do young Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal male offenders have different custodial pathways? Findings indicated that Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal young male offenders were in general, processed along similar custodial pathways that did not include police custody, remand or a custodial order. However, young male Aboriginal offenders were less likely than equivalent non-Aboriginal offenders to have been processed along this pathway and more likely to be processed along the pathways that included remand. It was found that young offenders with a chronic criminal history were more likely to be processed along these remand pathways, and Aboriginal offenders were more likely to have a chronic criminal history than non-Aboriginal offenders; there was clear evidence of disparity at specific custodial stages of the system. In addition, as young male Aboriginal offenders progressed deeper into the system there was evidence of cumulative disparity, particularly along the remand pathways, meaning that the probability of being in custody increases as the offender progresses from one custodial stage to the next custodial stage. Given the existence of disparity, acting within the juvenile justice system and against the young male Aboriginal offender, it was important to formulate viable solutions to such disparity, particularly in light of the Queensland government's commitment to reduce Aboriginal offenders in custody by 50%. Deterministic analyses and computer simulations were used to test the viability of various reduction scenarios suggested by the data. Despite in some instances, different results from the deterministic analyses and the computer simulations, overall findings indicated that to reduce custodial disparity whether at the remand stage, the custodial order stage, or in custody overall (the summation of police custody, remand and custodial orders) that reducing remand, regardless of whether the young offender had been in police custody or not, was the best overall solution. The trajectory study built on the findings of the pathways study, which had identified criminal history as an important factor in the processing pathways of young male Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal offenders. Using the semi-parametric group based method, the criminal trajectories of Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal young male offenders in Queensland were modeled. These trajectories were based on the finalised appearances of two cohorts of young offenders aged 10 to 17 years of age: those born in 1983 and 1984 and who had turned 18 years of age in 2001 and 2002 respectively. All of these young male offenders had entered the adult system when they turned 17 years of age, and this data provided their complete juvenile history in Queensland. Prior analyses using this method had not considered Aboriginal status or race as a determining factor in these trajectory models, nor had these models been validated either internally or externally in published works. For this research, internal validity was considered as the correct classification of offenders into trajectory groups, and external validity as the ability to reproduce these results in a second or subsequent sample of juvenile offenders. Two questions were therefore posed in the trajectory study: Do young Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal male offenders have different criminal trajectories? Can the predicted model(s) be validated, both internally and externally? Initial findings indicated that the optimal trajectory models selected on prior knowledge and the Bayesian Information Criterion did not validate internally. This finding brought into question the trajectory results of other published works that had not internally validated their models. The models finally selected as optimal indicated that Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal young male offenders did not have a common criminal trajectory and could not be modeled as one population. Both Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal young offenders were modeled by a low-frequency group, a late-onset group, and a chronic trajectory group. However, the young male Aboriginal offender was more likely than the non-Aboriginal to have been in the chronic or the late onset group and less likely to have been in the lowfrequency group. External validation utilised an innovative but simple method that utilised all of the data in the modeling process along with a sample of this same data for validation purposes: 10% of the criminal profiles, which were characteristic of the trajectory groups, and a further 5% of randomly selected profiles were chosen for validation. All of the characteristic profiles, but only 50% of the randomly selected profiles were validated, and of the latter, the majority not validated was in the late-onset group. In total, 79.2% of the Aboriginal trajectories and 85.6% of the non-Aboriginal criminal trajectories were correctly externally validated. Overall, there are two important implications from this research for government. First, even though young male Aboriginal offenders are more likely to have a chronic criminal history than non-Aboriginal offenders, this factor does not account for all of the observed disparity acting against the young Aboriginal offender within Queensland's juvenile justice system: there is evidence of disparity within the system that is unaccounted for by either offence type or criminal history. Second, given this chronic criminal history, systemic solutions to systemic disparity whilst viable, will not ultimately resolve this problem: they are only short-term measures at the end of a very long justice system. Longer-term solutions are needed to address external factors such as socio-economic disadvantage, unemployment and substance abuse in Aboriginal communities, before these young people are exposed to the system. Continuing to concentrate on systemic solutions, to such an entrenched problem as Aboriginal overrepresentation and disparity, is a misdirection of system resources and is inconsistent with social justice.
Thesis (PhD Doctorate)
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
School of Criminology and Criminal Justice
Full Text

Includes bibliographical references.
Adolescents are at risk for antisocial behaviour as well as for sustaining traumatic brain injuries (TBI; Moffitt, 1993; Williams, Cordan, Mewse, Tonks & Burgess, 2010). International literature has long made known the explicit link that exists between TBI and delinquent behavior (Eslinger, Flaherty-Craig, & Benton, 2004; S. Anderson, Bechara, Damasio, Tranel, & Damasio, 1999). The onset of antisocial behaviour post-TBI may not be surprising given the vulnerability of the frontal lobes in sustaining such an injury. Considering the strong overlap between the behaviour of offenders and the behavioural outcomes of sustaining TBIs, the high prevalence rates of TBI in offending populations is not surprising (Perron & Howard, 2008; Slaughter, Fann, & Ehde, 2003; Turkstra, Jones, & Toler, 2003; Williams et al., 2010). In this study, I investigate the prevalence of TBI in an offending population and the overlap between offending behaviour and outcomes of sustaining TBIs.

There is an ongoing and polarizing discourse with respect to the impartiality of the criminal justice system in its transactions with visible minority populations. Much of the controversy centers on the cause of the controversy centers disproportionate number of minority youth cases in North America and the U.K. criminal justice systems. In Canada, there is a dearth of research into the overrepresentation of Black youths in the Young Offender System. An examination of Montreal's Young Offender court records from 1992--1998 (n = 1714) reveals that race is a strong predictor of charge (p < .05) and disposition (p < .0001), controlling for age, language and birthplace. The study further finds that Black youth are charged with more violent offenses and receive more restrictive dispositions. Impact and implications for youth, the criminal justice system and social work are discussed. Further research including socioeconomic factors and prior history is recommended.

The study analysed a sample of male youth correctional discharges within Manitoba from January 1, 2000 to December 31, 2000. Agassiz Youth Centre (AYC) discharges were compared to a matched sample of discharges from other institutions using archival data (N = 150). Subsequent numbers of charges, convictions, months incarcerated and times incarcerated from each group were examined over two years in order to assess the effectiveness of AYC's Positive Peer Culture (PPC) program. These variables were compared while controlling for age, race, education, place of residence, family background, gang affiliation, type of offence, seriousness of most serious offence, number of times incarcerated, past risk of suicide, and risk to reoffend. Results suggest that PPC does have a significant impact on certain measures of recidivism including total number of times incarcerated, total number of months incarcerated, seriousness of the most serious offence and time before reinvolvement. Exploratory analysis also measured PPC's comparative effect on offenders with different personal characteristics. Results suggest that youth who live in rural areas, who do not have a history of suicide risk, who reside with at least one parent, or who are a low risk to reoffend had better outcomes if they were discharges from AYC than from the comparison group. Although this study is unable to isolate all confounding variables, it will be able to give some insight into the effect of PPC on recidivism. Recommendations address the application and interpretation of PPC at AYC as well as the direction for future research. An extensive literature review is also included.

Text in English
The issue of offenders’ re-integration has become an important topic to the Department of Correctional Services in South Africa due to high number of incarcerated individuals who need to return back into the society as law abiding citizens. Around the world, scholars have researched about offenders’re- integration. However, they tend to focus on adult ex-offenders, neglecting young adult male ex-offenders’ experiences of the family re-entry process. Scholars neglected that the consequences of being incarcerated at a young age (age 19-34) puts young people at overwhelming risks of future incarceration, unemployment, poor physical and mental health. Therefore, this study focused on seven young adult male ex-offenders in Sekhukhune district, aged between 24 and 34 years who returned to their families after incarceration. Participants were selected using purposive sampling and volunteer self-selection sampling, through the assistance of Tswelopele Ex-Offenders Forums in Sekhukhune area. This study explored, described and interpreted the meaning, benefits, challenges and coping strategies of the young adult males in regard to their family re-entry processes. This goal was achieved by adopting the interpretive phenomenological analysis (IPA) research design and conducting individual semi-structured interviews with the young adult ex-offenders. The IPA data analysis guidelines were followed to analyse data and the Person-environment (P-E) fit theory grounded this analysis as the emerging themes were further interpreted in light of the assumptions of this theory. The findings show that the process of family re-entry was an emotional rollercoaster for the young men concerning moving forward post their incarceration. They specifically experienced different moments of ambivalence, which was due to reuniting with family members on the one hand, but having to rely on family members for support, on the other hand. While being back in the family led to emotions of happiness and satisfaction, not being able to meet their family expectations and to perform the roles expected of people of their age led to various negative emotions, including sadness and anxiety.
Psychology
M.A. (Research Consultation (Psychology))