Experience of Delinquent Adolescents in Juvenile Detention Center of Tehran With Emphasis on Crime Repetition Prevention

 Juvenile delinquents are a group of people that is in dire need of psychosocial rehabilitation. In this research, we seek to assess the lived experience in two groups of delinquent adolescents: one group is repetitive delinquents, the second group successfully returned to society. We tried to understand the relevant and essential factors in making this difference. 

 This study is a qualitative research based on Grounded Theory. In this study, samples of adolescents with recurrent crimes and samples that have successfully returned to society without recidivism were reviewed. To do this, we should have investigated each case separately and the whole process that led to the recurrence of the crime. However, because the size of the statistical population is not sufficient to use quantitative and generalized methods, a case-experienced study has been conducted. This method assesses current phenomena in their real-life context, especially when the boundaries between a phenomenon and the context in which it occurs are not clearly defined. Several sources of evidence were used. After the coding of the gathered data and the formulation of the interviews in the form of concepts, the next step was to increase the level of abstraction of these concepts and propositions in the form of subcategories.

 Finally, of 222 propositions, we reached 100 concepts that were mainly associated with recurrent delinquency or regret and return to society. Some of the most important ones were family problems (such as parental quarrels, parental addiction, parental unemployment, and a history of a criminal conviction and parental imprisonment).

 Undoubtedly, one of the essential factors in the occurrence of crime is the environments in which the perpetrators deal with them. They are influenced by these environments whose personalities are shaped. Family, school, neighborhood, dropout, peer group, and general social determinants are influential in juvenile delinquency and its continuation or abandonment.