What is it about?
Our manuscript examines the factors that may influence practitioners' attitudes towards juvenile inmates and offenders. We focused on practitioners' beliefs in a just world and inmates' roles in a criminal event. One of the most intriguing findings in our research indicates that a juvenile inmate's role in criminal event affects educational instructors' attitudes toward the inmate. Educational instructors perceived a juvenile inmate who was victimized during his leave from the correctional boarding school as more delinquent and less treatable than the inmate who committed an offense during his leave. The findings also show that educational instructors with a strong belief in a just world were characterized by more negative attitudes towards juvenile inmates than the instructors with a weak belief in a just world, and there is an interaction between inmates' role in criminal event and educational instructors' belief in a just world.
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Why is it important?
This research contributes to the literature by emphasizing the combination of individual and contextual variables and by addressing the nexus between belief in a just world and attitudes towards juvenile inmates. The results of this research also have practical implications for the training of practitioners who work with juvenile offenders and for the screening processes as well.
Perspectives
I have been researching issues related to the belief in a just world and victim blaming for over a decade. However, it still intrigued me to find out that education instructors working with juvenile offenders tend to express more negative attitudes toward victimized adolescents than toward adolescents who committed a criminal act. It seems counter-intuitive. We expect, we hope that people who have experienced some type of victimization will at least get some sympathy. But sadly, in reality, people tend to blame victims and avoid them. It is a type of protective mechanism that helps us to feel safe and optimistic about our future. Yet, since negative social reaction may hurt victims' chances for recovery, we all should be aware of our responses toward victims.
Dr Inna Levy
Ariel University
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Educational Instructors’ Attitudes Toward Juvenile Inmates: The Effect of the Inmate’s Role in a Criminal Event and the Instructors’ Belief in a Just World, International Journal of Offender Therapy and Comparative Criminology, August 2016, SAGE Publications,
DOI: 10.1177/0306624x16660556.
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