Doctoral Dissertation Research: The Struggle to Change: Life Course Alteration and Environmental Opportunities of Juvenile Offenders

少年司法系统面临的最大挑战之一是少年犯的累犯率长期居高不下。最近的研究估计，一半被监禁的青年在获释后将继续犯下新的罪行。尽管已经设计了许多旨在支持停止犯罪活动的计划，但这些青少年罪犯中的许多人永远不会成功地发展为没有犯罪行为的成年人。这项研究调查了为什么青少年罪犯尽管努力“改过自新”，但仍继续重复犯罪。为了解决这个问题，它跟踪了芝加哥和波士顿的30名年轻男子，他们违反了法律，随后表示打算改变他们的行为。在这两个城市，参与者都会在一年的时间里接受采访。问题的设计是为了获得关于个人行为选择背后的动机以及参与者如何看待周围环境的信息。其目标是深入了解个人行为和结构化社会环境提供的机会之间的互动，认识到尝试行为改革的背景如何以不同的方式促进或抑制新的行动。有人认为，积极和安全的身份概念可能会保护年轻男子不再犯罪。因此，本研究的目的是观察这些积极的同一性概念的出现，或者在它们无法发展的时候认识到抑制它们的力量。这项研究表明，年轻人在试图改变自己的行为过程中，会受到各种影响，并以动态的方式相互作用。它的目的是帮助制定更有效的少年司法方案，以考虑到少年犯努力改变其生活轨迹的背景。

Among the greatest challenges the Juvenile Justice System faces is a chronically high rate of recidivism among juvenile offenders. Recent studies have estimated that half of incarcerated youth will go on to commit new crimes after their release from detention. In spite of the many programs that have been designed to support desistance from criminal activity, many of these young offenders will never successfully develop into non-offending adults. The present study investigates why teenage offenders continue to recidivate despite their efforts to 'go straight'. To address this question, it follows 30 young men in Chicago and Boston who have broken the law and have subsequently expressed an intention to change their behavior. In both cities, participants are interviewed over the course of a year. Questions are designed to elicit information on the motivations underlying personal behavioral choices and how participants perceive their surroundings. The goal is to gain insight into the interaction between individual behavior and the opportunities offered by the structured social environment, recognizing how the context within which behavioral reform is attempted variously facilitates or inhibits new actions. It is argued that a positive and secure concept of identity may protect young men from recidivating. Hence, the aim of this research is to observe the emergence of such positive identity concepts or to recognize the forces that have inhibited them when they fail to develop. This research demonstrates that young men are exposed to a variety of influences that interact in dynamic ways in the course of attempting to reform their behavior. It aims to aid in the development of juvenile justice programs that are more effective for taking into account the context within which young offenders struggle to change the courses of their lives.