The aim of the present study was to examine factors that affect educational instructors' attitudes toward juvenile inmates in corrective educational facilities. Educational instructors play an important role in the rehabilitation of juvenile inmates, and their attitudes may affect the adolescents' chances of rehabilitation. We adopted an ecological perspective and explored the relationship between instructors' belief in a just world (BJW) and the role of inmates in a criminal event (offender/victim). The study included 196 educational instructors. They answered a questionnaire on their background, BJW levels, and attitudes toward juvenile inmates. Results show that educational instructors perceived "victim" inmates as significantly more delinquent and less treatable than "offender" inmates, and that a BJW affected attitudes toward juvenile inmates. The theoretical and applied implications of these findings are discussed in this article.

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This study investigated authoritarian personality, ethnicity, and religiosity as predictors of educational instructors' authorityexercising style in disciplinary encounters in juvenile correctional institutions. Participants were all 320 educational instructors from all 56 juvenile correctional institutions in Israel. Research findings indicated that educational instructors with a high level of authoritarianism responded with more power assertion and withdrawal during disciplinary encounters, whereas instructors with a low level of authoritarianism responded with induction during these events. In addition, ethnicity and level of religiosity predicted exercising of authority. Arab as well as Jewish religious instructors were more inclined to respond with power assertion during disciplinary encounters. The present study attempts to interconnect personality and environmental and behavioral characteristics and calls for follow-up research on educational instructors' behaviors in juvenile correctional institutions.

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