Perceptions of personal safety in custody among a sample of serious and violent incarcerated young offenders

The new Youth Criminal Justice Act (YCJA) (2003) contains the controversial sentencing option allowing young offenders convicted of certain serious and/or violent offences to receive adult length sentences.Critics of the YCJA, and specifically this sentencing option, argued that the impact of prison on young offenders was invariably negative and that society was neither protected, nor were incarcerated serious and violent offenders effectively deterred by longer sentences.Also, there is considerable research indicating that prisons are inherently violent institutions that cause fear among the most vulnerable incarcerated youth.The two predominant explanations for the high level of prison violence are the Importation model and the Deprivation model.The importation literature contends that prison violence is the result of the individual characteristics that offenders bring with them into the prison system.Conversely, the Deprivation model argues that it is the structure and nature of prisons that causes custody facilities to be violent.Utilizing a sample of 200 incarcerated serious and violent young offenders in Vancouver, B.C., this thesis examines the extent to which youth felt safe while in custody.In addition, a number of independent variables were assessed including age, gender, Aboriginal identity, offender classification, length of time spent in custody, being the victim of physical abuse, hard drug use, perceived levels of institutional violence, and level of custody to analyse their impact on youth's feelings of safety.Using a four stage multiple regression model indicated iii a robust relationship between perceived levels of institutional violence and feelings of safety.There were limitations to this thesis research primarily involving the use of a single indicator measure of safety and the absence of several other key independent variables, such as mental disorders within prison group associations, staff rules, and varied prison authority structures. CHAPTER TWO: PERCEPTIONS OF VIOLENCE AND SAFETY IN JUVENILE INSTITUTIONSFew doubt that prisons are violent.For decades, American and Canadian studies have confirmed this violence in the form of sexual assaults, beatings, and killings in correctional institutions (Bartollas, 1978; OIDonnell and Edgar, 1999;Maitland and Sluder, 1996).While the studies have discussed the extent and factors that contribute to extremely high perceptions of prison violence, what is not so apparent is the degree of safety that youth feel in custody.While it appears to be widely accepted that youth custody facilities to some extent are violent, and, therefore, incarcerated youth are at some risk for victimization, it is still unclear how this potential risk affects their perceived levels of safety.More specifically, is a youth's perception of violence related to their perceptions of safety?It appears from the lack of research literature, or even media attention, that the public, especially in Canada, is not fully aware of the impact of custody on youth.Still, the majority of Canadians are supportive of the use of prisons for serious and violent offenders (Corrado et al., 1992).As well, the introduction of adult length sentences for serious, violent, and repeat young offenders under the YCJA reflects the political concerns about public anger towards the perceived lack of punitive sentencing in the youth justice system, mainly in the form of lengthy prison sentences.Yet, when the public is made aware of the violence in custody, the typical response is to condemn the neglect, inhumanity, and

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