Living Conditions of Juvenile Prisoners

This article presents the key findings of a DFG-funded project about the life situations and the conditions of socialization among male juvenile prisoners in southern Germany. The project's analysis showed that socially disadvantaged population groups are significantly overrepresented among juvenile prisoners. It was also found that social deprivation of juvenile prisoners has increased in the last 20 years. However, this social selection does not mean that only people from the lowest social classes are found in young offender institutions. Only a few prisoners exhibited extreme marginality, a finding that also applied to serious fears of the future and resignation. Further key components of the project analysis focused on migrant backgrounds, the onset of criminal careers, family socialization, academic and job performance and the critical comparison of methodology concerning various data sources and the different types of data collection.