Incarcerated Youth and Social Bonding

• In Event: Experiences of Incarcerated Juveniles

Abstract

The current study uses in-depth interviews with twenty incarcerated male youth and sixteen staff in a private correctional facility to analyze how youth experience social bonds while incarcerated. Analysis of in-depth interviews reveals how youth conceptualize the role of friendships within the correctional facility and develop social bonds with other juveniles. These findings further reveal the mechanisms that function to strengthen and weaken the development of social bonds among incarcerated youth.

Author

• Mark Magidson, University of California Irvine