Department of Psychology, University of Ghana, Legon, Accra, Ghana.
Department of Psychology, University of Ghana, Legon, Accra, Ghana.
Int J Law Psychiatry. 2022 Jul-Aug;83:101808. doi: 10.1016/j.ijlp.2022.101808. Epub 2022 Jun 3.
Victimization is considered a serious issue which affects children across the globe and this is particularly accentuated in the prison environment Research on prison victimization and psychological health however, has primarily focused on adult prisoners. There is little documentation on how victimization impacts the psychological health of juvenile offenders in correctional facilities. This article therefore explores the experiences of victimization among juvenile offenders in the Senior Correctional Center, Ghana. A total of 20 juvenile offenders were purposively sampled from Ghana's Senior Correction Center. Using thematic analysis, three themes were generated and discussed: forms of victimization, causes of victimization and impacts of victimization. It was revealed that, besides taking the form of either direct and or indirect physical assault, victimization also manifested in the form of verbal assault. Moreover, victimization was found to usually occur when young offenders direct their built-up frustrations at others or when victims possess specific attributes that make them targets. The various forms of victimization experienced by these young offenders impacts their well-being physically, psychologically and socially. It is recommended that stakeholders should practice stress management exercises, and establish a buddy system for juvenile offenders in the correctional facility.
受害问题被视为一个严重的问题，影响着全球各地的儿童，而在监狱环境中，这一问题尤为突出。然而，关于监狱受害和心理健康的研究主要集中在成年囚犯身上。关于受害如何影响管教设施中少年犯的心理健康的文献资料很少。因此，本文探讨了加纳高级惩教中心少年犯的受害经历。从加纳高级惩教中心有目的地抽取了 20 名少年犯。采用主题分析，生成并讨论了三个主题：受害形式、受害原因和受害影响。结果表明，除了直接或间接的身体攻击形式外，受害还表现为言语攻击。此外，当年轻罪犯将他们的挫败感指向他人时，或者当受害者具有使他们成为目标的特定属性时，受害通常会发生。这些年轻罪犯所经历的各种形式的受害会对他们的身体、心理和社会福祉产生影响。建议利益相关者应为少年犯在管教设施中实施压力管理练习，并建立伙伴制度。
