NCJ Number
215946
Journal
International Journal of Offender Therapy and Comparative Criminology Volume: 50 Issue: 2 Dated: April 2006 Pages: 187-203
Date Published
April 2006
Length
17 pages
Annotation
This study examined the relationship between perceived parental care and supervision and young offenders’ intentions to reoffend.
Abstract
Results indicated that young offender’s perceptions of parental care and supervision were unrelated to their intentions to reoffend. Instead, intentions to reoffend in the future were significantly predicted by the young offenders’ attitudes toward offending and their perceptions of behavioral control over future offending. However, the findings also revealed an association between poor parenting and favorable attitudes toward offending as well as lower perceived capability to desist from offending in the future. The findings suggest that rehabilitation programming for incarcerated youth should focus first on the individual characteristics of the youth and second on parenting training programs for their families. Participants were a sample of 152 male offenders between the ages of 16 and 21 who were held for various offenses in the Polmont Institution in Scotland. Participants were randomly selected from each wing of the juvenile correctional institution to accurately reflect Polmont’s population. The young offenders completed a shortened form of the Parental Bonding Instrument (PBI) and a questionnaire measuring their intentions to commit future crimes. Data were analyzed using hierarchical regression models. Future research should focus on whether altering the attitudes and beliefs of young offenders could impact recidivism rates. Tables, references