Educational Instructors’ Attitudes Toward Juvenile Inmates: The Effect of the Inmate’s Role in a Criminal Event and the Instructors’ Belief in a Just World

Abstract

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.

Predicting support for community corrections: Crime type and severity, and offender, observer, and victim characteristics

“…From the theoretical point of view, this study's results provide evidence supporting the ecological framework (Levy and Reuven, 2018; McLaren and Hawe, 2005) assumption that attitudes stem from the interaction between contextual and individual variables. Also, by addressing the crime scene as a triad between offender, victim, and bystander (Levy and Ben-David, 2008), this study facilitates the identification of more complex patterns in public decision-making.…”

“…As Levy and Ben-David (2008) suggested, crimes should be considered from a triadic point of view, which includes the offender, the observer and the victim. Therefore, we adopted an ecological framework (McLaren and Hawe, 2005) that addresses the triad and assumes that behaviors and attitudes are affected by the interaction between individual (respondent related variables) and contextual (situational) factors (Espelage and Swearer, 2010; Levy and Reuven, 2018; McLaren and Hawe, 2005). In this context, observer demographic characteristics and perceptions of crime severity represent individual factors, while the crime type and offender and victim characteristics represent contextual factors.…”

Predicting Israeli Public Support for Capital Punishment: Crime Type and Severity, Offender, Observer, and Victim Characteristics

“…Our findings suggest that the combination of perceived high crime severity, terrorism, and male observer status are instructive factors in capital-punishment support prediction. To the best of our knowledge, this study is the first attempt to examine the capital-punishment support within the ecological framework (Levy & Reuven, 2018;McLaren & Hawe, 2005). The implementation of the ecological framework in this study has identified that attitudes toward capital punishment stem from interactions between contextual (e.g., crime type) and individual variables (e.g., perceived crime severity, observer gender).…”

“…Finally, considering the significance of the ecological framework (McLaren & Hawe, 2005), we addressed the inter-relation between individual (participant-related variables) and contextual (situational) factors (Espelage & Swearer, 2010;Levy & Reuven, 2018;McLaren & Hawe, 2005). Observer demographic characteristics and perceptions of crime severity represent individual factors, while crime type, as well as offender and victim characteristics, represent contextual factors.…”

Identify the needs for continuous professional training of specialists working with juvenile delinquents in order to make the intervention more effective and increase the chances of social adaptation

“…Educators in prisons are put in the position of managing more roles than educators in the public education system. Their duties are wide-ranging, from ensuring safety and security in the classroom (in many correctional systems prison educators are officers, employees of the prison system), to providing emotional support to young inmates (Levy & Reuven, 2016). Prison educators also play a significant role in creating a social environment that fosters positive change in young inmates (Van der Helm et al, 2011).…”