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长期高累犯率。最近的研究估计，被监禁的青少年中有一半在被释放后会继续犯罪。尽管有许多项目旨在帮助人们摆脱犯罪行为，但这些青少年罪犯中的许多人永远不会成功地成长为不犯罪的成年人。目前的研究调查了为什么青少年罪犯尽管努力“改过自新”，但仍会继续再犯。为了解决这个问题，它追踪了芝加哥和波士顿的30名年轻人，他们违反了法律，随后表示有意改变自己的行为。在这两个城市，参与者接受为期一年的采访。问题的设计是为了引出个人行为选择背后的动机以及参与者如何感知周围环境的信息。目标是深入了解个人行为与结构化社会环境提供的机会之间的相互作用，认识到行为改革的背景如何在不同程度上促进或抑制新行动。有人认为，积极和安全的身份概念可以保护青年男子不再再犯。因此，本研究的目的是观察这些积极认同概念的出现，或者在它们未能发展时认识到抑制它们的力量。这项研究表明，在试图改变自己行为的过程中，年轻人受到各种各样的影响，这些影响以动态的方式相互作用。它的目的是帮助青少年司法项目的发展，使其更有效地考虑到年轻罪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.