Young Offenders and Open Custody
Routledge Frontiers of Criminal Justice Series

Young offenders given custodial sentences in youth institutions constitute an important group in the context of crime prevention research, given that offenders within this group are at high risk of reoffending or continuing with a criminal career into adulthood. This book explores the significance of custodial openness for children and youths and how this environment affects future desistance from crime.

In Young Offenders and Open Custody Tove Pettersson provides powerful support for the view that the experience of more open custodial forms during the youth custody sentence is of significance both for providing incarcerated youths with a more humane environment and for the likelihood of a positive outcome following their release. Building upon detailed interviews with convicted youths and staff at the special approved homes in Sweden, this book offers unique insights into the effect of punishment on young offenders and their understanding of social control.

Drawing upon quantitative and qualitative data, this book examines levels of reoffending over time among youths sentenced to custody, and considers the impact of open sentences. This book will be useful reading for students and researchers engaged in youth and juvenile justice, juvenile delinquency, and sentencing and punishment.

1. Introduction

2. Total institutions, discipline and power

3. Studying open custody, re-offending and institutional everyday life

4. Youth and staff narratives about youth custody sentences

5. Youth and staff narratives about the time subsequent to youth custody

6. Re-offending and custodial openness

7. The significance of custodial openness

Tove Pettersson is Head of Department and Professor at the Department of Criminology, Stockholm University, Sweden