NCJ Number
228097
Journal
The Prison Journal Volume: 89 Issue: 3 Dated: September 2009 Pages: 265-285
Date Published
September 2009
Length
21 pages
Annotation
This study analyzed data on juvenile correctional facilities to predict victimization and fear among individual juvenile inmates.
Abstract
The results of the multi-level model estimates using both facility and individual level factors departed from prior research efforts, which focused primarily on either an importation or a deprivation model to explain misbehavior; prior research tends to assume that misconduct in correctional facilities is due primarily to either inmate characteristics or facility characteristics. Results of this study suggest a third option: that these two levels of measurement are interactive rather than additive. Inmates do import into the prison behavioral patterns, relationships, and rivalries that may provoke violence; and inmates do respond to deprivation with misbehavior. Analyses demonstrate that juvenile inmates' comprehension of rules and their perceptions of the facility school and staff helpfulness are better predictors than either static individual characteristics or facility characteristics. Data were collected using the Performance-based Standards for Youth Correction and Detention Facilities project; 148 facilities across 31 States participated. Tables, notes, and references