A qualitative study was conducted among 14-17-year-old
male adolescents (N=16) in Estonian juvenile correctional
institutions with individual semi-structured interviews. For a description of
the content structure how male juvenile delinquents describe the two aspects of
identity—personal and social, was used. First, males
were asked to describe themselves as a measure of personal identity; and
second, social identity was defined as how the respondents perceived that
friend to see them. Quantitative content analysis was based on an inductive
analysis of responses to two general open-ended interview questions. Research
results reflected that male juvenile offenders in the correctional institutions
had a predominantly negative, mixed, and contradictory personal and social
identity both in terms of personal traits, basic (academic, athletic, and
work-related) skills, prosociality and emotional aspects, as well as positive
around the physical appearance, whereas some of the respondents had mentioned
that their personal and social identity has not been formed. In addition,
institutionalized juvenile offenders’ descriptions of their stigmatized
delinquent personal and social identity did not coincide with their involvement
in delinquent behavior and corresponding attitudes.
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