Encyclopedia of Adolescence

2011 Edition
| Editors: Roger J. R. Levesque

Incarcerated Youth

Reference work entry
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-1695-2_196
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Overview

Studies of the adaptation to prison have been heavily influenced by classic prison sociology and thus the majority of literature on adjustment to imprisonment has focused on adult males. Though there is some recognition of the inherent vulnerability of adolescents and youth because of their age, studies tend to examine the stress of incarceration from the perspective of adult male models of adaptation. Until recently, consideration has not been given to the possibility that youths find certain events uniquely problematic, nor is there recognition that adolescence itself has its own stresses that may be relevant in this setting. The following essay reviews several traditionally distinct literatures relevant to adolescent adjustment to incarceration and reports on findings of a research program that integrates criminological and developmental psychopathology frameworks in an effort to examine youths’ adjustment in custody.

Introduction

There is a general paucity of empirical...

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Notes

Acknowledgment

The preparation of this article was supported by research grants from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada to Carla Cesaroni and to A.N. Doob and by the University of Toronto Centre of Criminology’s John Beattie Research Fund. The authors gratefully acknowledge the support and assistance of Lee Tustin and the Ministry of Community and Social Services (Ontario), Nadia Mazahari and the Ministry of Children and Youth Services, Anthony N. Doob, all of the facilities that supported this research, and the young men who participated in the project.

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© Springer Science+Business Media, LLC 2011

Authors and Affiliations

  1. 1.University of Ontario Institute of TechnologyOshawaCanada
  2. 2.Department of Human Development and Applied Psychology, Ontario Institute for Studies in EducationUniversity of TorontoTorontoCanada