The incarcerated male adolescent\u27s view of the meaning of his experience: A phenomenological study

Each year in Massachusetts there are approximately 21,000 juveniles arraigned in court on criminal charges. If trends continue as they have over the past ten years, juvenile arrests for violent crimes will double by the year 2010 (DYS, 1996). This indicates a need to examine closely the current methods of rehabilitation and socialization of incarcerated youths. This study examines the experiences of eight ajudicated, incarcerated male adolescents to discover the meaning these offenders are making of their daily experience in a Massachusetts secure treatment unit and indicates whether this experience is congruent with the expressed goals and purpose of the Department of Youth Service. This study also expanded on the work of Kegan (1982) by investigating the applicability of his model of developmental stages in meaning making systems to incarcerated male adolescents. The qualitative approach of semi-structed interviewing was used in order to avoid imposing the ideas and standards of the psychological establishment as well as that of the experimenter\u27s culture on the experience of the adolescents. Using Kegan\u27s model, African-American, Caucasian and Hispanic subjects were found to be all functioning at the same developmental level. Qualitative analysis of the data revealed trust as a significant issue and identified the lack of the ability on the part of the subjects to take another\u27s perspective as a major deterrent to the messages inherent in the program\u27s stated goals and also to the actual methodology used by the staff. Case history material from the Department of Youth Services and Kegan\u27s semi-structured, subject-object interviews provided a multi-dimensional understanding of the complex picture of the adolescents\u27 experiences. Conclusions are drawn from the data leading to suggestions for better communication between incarcerated adolescents and those professionals in whose care they have been entrusted