SAMOPERCEPCIJA I PERCEPCIJA BUDUĆNOSTI IZ UGLA MALOLJETNIH DELINKVENATA
SELF-PERCEPTION AND PERCEPTION OF THE FUTURE FROM THE JUVENILE DELINQUENTS PERSPECTIVE

Summary/Abstract: In all historical epochs, including the contemporary, the problematic behavior of minors is the subject of special social care and treatment. Although a lot of empirical evidence confirms that some of the sanctions imposed on minors, e.g. measures of closed protection, do not give good results in terms of their resocialization, legislators, and advocates of penal policies persistently insist that delinquents undergo exactly them and find several arguments for this. Advocacy for a more punitive approach towards delinquents stems from the need to protect existing social values, while in terms of juvenile resocialization, more adequate treatment methods are excluded. Negative consequences are expected: the recidivism rate of young people under closed protection is significant, as is the likelihood of developing a criminal career. To check how incarceration affects minors and to anticipate the possible implications of this treatment, we analyzed the self-descriptions of the inmates of the correctional facility and their perception of the future. Also, we were interested in how some family circumstances and institutional contexts correlate with self-image and anticipation of life outcomes. The theoretical framework of the study was found in symbolic interactionism, and our initial research assumption is that there is a significant statistical connection between self-perception and perception of the future and: family (material status and structure) and institutional circumstances (degree of adaptation to life in the institution, academic achievement, length, and stay at-institutional regime). In addition, we assumed that self-perception goes hand in hand with anticipation of the future and that there is a significant connection between self-description and perception of one's life in five years. We checked the hypotheses on the total population of juvenile delinquents (153) who were sentenced to closed protection measures in the Correctional Center in Kruševac. The results of the analysis partially confirmed the initial assumptions, and we interpreted them within the theoretical framework of symbolic interactionism.

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