YOUNG PERSONS’ EXPERIENCE WITH IMPRISONMENT Chair: Joni Reef Chair: Joni Reef

155 When the factors that determine people’s perception of safety are examined, communication is often overlooked as a possible determinant. The scarce research that dives into this factor usually focuses on the impact of mass media or satisfaction with police-citizen contacts.

Planned, structural communication by relevant institutions like police and (local) government is rarely taken into account.

The recently finalized PhD-research addresses the question whether communication could be one of the determinants of safety perception by the public and if so, what its exact role is. This exploration of communication as a possible determinant includes different media, traditional as well as new and social media, communication about objective safety and possible parallels with other areas where communication plays an important role in informing and influencing people, like public health messages and campaigns.

Specific focus is on police communication through social media. In the Netherlands, especially Twitter has been widely adopted by police departments and individual police officers as a convenient and accessible tool for interaction with citizens. Through surveys and interviews, some light is shed on the effects of these communicative efforts: do people feel safer when their local police officer keeps them posted via Twitter? The results and conclusions will be reported in this paper.

3.4 YOUNG PERSONS’ EXPERIENCE WITH IMPRISONMENT

investigations within prisons are likely to jeopardise the rehabilitation of young offenders and disrupt the order of the prison. Thus, in response to criminal behaviour within youth prisons a solution has to be found which recognises the special needs of young prisoners and does not interfere with rehabilitation but rather supports it in the long term

This paper discusses the pros and cons of different reactions of the prison management to criminal behaviour by inmates with a special focus on the reporting of offences. It also presents the results of a research project about how different institutions react to criminal incidents, in which records of two German youth prisons and a survey of all governors of German youth prisons were analysed.

0196 - NARRATIVES OF GENDER AND CONFLICT – QUALITATIVE FINDINGS ON INTERPERSONAL VIOLENCE IN JUVENILE PRISONS

Schmidt Holger (Germany)¹

1 - University of Cologne, Institute of Criminology

In everyday thinking, the relationship between gender and violence often translates into a rather simplistic formula in which masculinity equals violence. On the contrary, violence performed by women seems to constitute a culturally disturbing factor. Whereas in other areas of contemporary social life demarcation lines between women and men tend to blur, revolting, “disobedient”, and violent women continue to irritate. Violence performed by women seems to constitute a violation of societal expectations and everyday “normality”

through which their ontological “otherness” becomes visible.

Drawing on in-depth semi-structured interviews with adolescent female and male prisoners, the paper seeks to contribute to the criminological and sociological endeavour of understanding the interconnections between gender and violence. It outlines what meaning these adolescents ascribe to their actions and how social and individual meanings of violent situations and the selves involved in those situations are presented and negotiated.

0197 - EMPATHY AND BULLYING IN JUVENILE CORRECTIONAL FACILITIES Verena Boxberg (Germany)¹

1 - University of Cologne

Empathy is often discussed as a predictor of offending. A systematic meta-analysis revealed the relationship between empathy and offending behaviour[i]. Intra-prison violence is related to lower levels of empathy, too. Furthermore, there are hints of prison environment

157 between prisoner and staff, sense of security, perception of deprivation) influence their levels of reported empathy?

Data is based on a longitudinal study of male and female juveniles incarcerated in juvenile correctional facilities in Germany. Questionnaires are used to measure self-reported delinquent behaviour, empathy, and the perception of the prison environment. A structural equation modelling is conducted to examine the relations between empathy, bullying, and prison environment.

[i] Jolliffe, D. & Farrington, D. P. (2004). Empathy and offending: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Aggression and violent behaviour, 9, 441-476.

0198 - RELATIONSHIPS WITH OUTSIDE FAMILY AND FRIENDS IN YOUTH PRISONS: “THE ROLE OF LONG UNSUPERVISED VISITS AND SEXUALITY"

Julian Knop (Germany)¹ 1 - Freie Universität Berlin

Relationships with outside family and friends are very important for the social reintegration of young prisoners. They can have an effect on the prisoner’s mental wellbeing during incarceration, provide social support after release, and act as protective factors since they can prevent relapse in the future. In the context of social relations to the outside world, intimate and sexual relationships during imprisonment play a special role. In my presentation, I will discuss the significance of social relationships with people in the outside world and suppressed sexuality in youth prisons. I will also describe the current situation in the German youth prison system. Due to the fact that many social relationships with people in the outside world are interrupted or even terminated because of imprisonment and heterosexual relationships cannot be acted out in most German youth prisons, I will discuss the possibility of long unsupervised visits. Because these visits are unsupervised, last several hours, and take place in rooms that are similar to apartments, they can have the potential to strenghthen social relationships with people living outside, as well as enable intimate and sexual relationships in youth Prisons.

0199 - THE IMPACT OF FATHER’S DETENTION ON CHILDREN’S BEHAVIOR

Joni Reef (Netherlands)¹; Anja Dirkzwager (Netherlands)²; Paul Nieuwbeerta (Netherlands)¹ 1 - University of Leiden, Faculty of Law, Institute of Criminal Law and Criminology; 2 - Netherlands Institute for the Study of Crime and Law Enforcement, The Netherlands

INTRODUCTION: One of our main concerns is that imprisonment of fathers leads to problem behaviour in their children. Because their children already belong to a fragile group, incarceration of fathers may generate new criminals. However, assessing the impact on

children’s problem behaviour is challenging because of the complex interrelatedness of risk factors and paternal detention. The aim of this study was to determine the impact of father’s number of prison spells on children’s externalising behaviour, considering a large number of known risk factors.

METHODS: We studied fathers and children that were part of the larger Dutch nationwide longitudinal Prison Project. We asked incarcerated fathers to complete questionnaires on their mental health (BSI) and educational level. In addition, we collected official data about current detention length, number of previous prison spells and convictions of the fathers. Finally, we asked mothers to complete questionnaires (CBCL) about both the behaviour of the children (n

= 84) at home, and about financial alterations after incarceration of the father. We used linear regression analyses to determine associations between fathers detention frequency and children’s externalising behaviour.

RESULTS: In multivariable analyses, adjusting for poor mental health, delinquency and low educational level of the father and financial decline in the family, there was a significant association between number of prison spells and externalising behavior of children.

CONCLUSION: There is a clear association between the number of detentions of fathers and the development of externalising behaviour in considering sentencing of fathers and counselling programs for their families.

3.5 THE ONLINE TRADE IN COUTERFEIT PHARMACEUTICALS