Self-esteem and institutionalized delinquent offenders: the role of background characteristics

Some of the delinquency literature sustains the assumption that inept persons doing unworthy things is the self-view held by youth offenders, "Disadvantaged" or "adverse" background characteristics are often assumed to account for low self-esteem among delinquent offenders. However, the implications of control theory suggest that youths having few bonds to people and institutions are relatively "free" to drift into delinquency without serious damage to self-esteem. The hypothesis we examined was derived from the work of control theorists: that self-esteem would be higher for offenders "removed" from conventional ties, lower for those who maintained conventional attachments. Data from 75 male delinquent offenders incarcerated at a correctional youth institution are used in testing this relationship. Our hypothesis received strong support. The implication drawn from these results is that the impact of the correctional process on self-esteem may be far less important than the myriad relationships previously established with people and institutions. These results pertaining to a special category of youth are in keeping with the reported findings on the link between deprivation and self-esteem of general youth populations.