ERIC Number: EJ849618
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2009
Pages: 27
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0044-118X
EISSN: N/A
Mapping a Process of Negotiated Identity among Incarcerated Male Juvenile Offenders
Abrams, Laura S.; Hyun, Anna
Youth & Society, v41 n1 p26-52 2009
Building on theories of youth identity transitions, this study maps a process of negotiated identity among incarcerated young men. Data are drawn from ethnographic study of three juvenile correctional institutions and longitudinal semistructured interviews with facility residents. Cross-case analysis of 10 cases that finds youth offenders adapted to the correctional world either with ease or difficulty depending on their professed criminal identifications and their ability to locate a sense of personal power within the institution. Youth also employed a set of strategies to contend with treatment discourses challenging them to reexamine their prior selves and envision alternative future identity possibilities. These strategies shape three identified patterns of identity transition: "self synthesis," "situational self-transformation," and "self-preservation." The findings highlight youths' efforts to retain a positive view of the self in response to challenges to professed identities and reveal various styles of identity transitions occurring in involuntary institutional contexts. (Contains 5 notes, 2 tables, and 1 figure.)
Descriptors: Futures (of Society), Correctional Institutions, Ethnography, Adolescents, Institutionalized Persons, Males, Delinquency, Identification (Psychology), Longitudinal Studies, Interviews, Adjustment (to Environment), Power Structure, Criminals
SAGE Publications. 2455 Teller Road, Thousand Oaks, CA 91320. Tel: 800-818-7243; Tel: 805-499-9774; Fax: 800-583-2665; e-mail: journals@sagepub.com; Web site: http://sagepub.com
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A