Theoretical and empirical limits of Scandinavian Exceptionalism: Isolation and normalization in Danish prisons

Drawing on interviews with 76 prisoners, 47 prison staff, and 14 experts, we document lived experiences of punishment in the Danish prison context. We argue that, regardless of “humanizing” elements of normalization and humanity, prisoners and staff may experience the power of the carceral state in Denmark in ways similar to those under more obviously harsh confinement regimes, as exist in the United States and, to a lesser extent, in the United Kingdom. Ultimately, macro-level theories like Scandinavian Exceptionalism serve as a rhetorical tool, implying that harsher prison systems are fixable, but fail to reflect the micro-level realities of incarceration

Effects of resocialization on post-weaning social isolation-induced abnormal aggression and social deficits in rats

As previously shown, rats isolated from weaning develop abnormal social and aggressive behavior characterized by biting attacks targeting vulnera- ble body parts of opponents, reduced attack signaling, and increased defensive behavior despite increased attack counts. Here we studied whether this form of violent aggression could be reversed by resocialization in adulthood. During the first weak of resocialization, isolation-reared rats showed multiple social deficits including increased defensiveness and decreased huddling during sleep. Deficits were markedly attenuated in the second and third weeks. Despite improved social functioning in groups, isolated rats readily showed abnormal features of aggres- sion in a resident-intruder test performed after the 3-week-long resocialization. Thus, post-weaning social isolation-induced deficits in prosocial behavior were eliminated by resocialization during adulthood, but abnormal aggression was resilient to this treatment. Findings are compared to those obtained in humans who suffered early social maltreatment, and who also show social deficits and dysfunctional aggression in adulthood

ANIMALS IN RESOCIALIZATION

The benefits of relations between humans and animals have encouraged both scientists and members of other communities to popularize the knowledge in the field of animal-assisted therapy. Currently, animal-assisted therapy has been used not only in therapy, but also in resocialization. The increasing popularity of this form of supporting maladjusted people who are isolated from society or people with disabilities encouraged both practitioners and researchers to organize knowledge, thus reducing the scepticism about the usefulness of animal-assisted therapy. In Poland, the particular focus of the animal-assisted therapy is on the use of dogs to enhance the resocialization process. However, various experimental resocialization programs have also used horses and even lamas. This paper is intended to familiarize the reader with the aspects of the assistance of animals in resocialization. Furthermore, it emphasizes the difficulties and advantages that can be expected from integration of this type of therapy into resocialization programs

How national culture and parental style affect the process of adolescents’ ecological resocialization

The role of adolescents as influencers on their families’ environmental behavior is potentially a catalyst for change towards increasing eco-friendly actions. In this paper, the authors report on a cross-cultural study of ecological resocialization in France and India. Using in-depth dyadic interviews, they investigated parental styles, cultural attributes and extent of adolescents’ influence over parental eco-behavior. The study reveals that ecological resocialization across countries differs substantially, according to a combination of national cultural values, parental style and influence strategy. French teens exhibit a greater impact than Indian teens on their parents’ eco-behavior and use bilateral influence strategies. In India, not all mothers engage in ecological resocialization, but those who do are susceptible to unilateral strategies. The role of environmental knowledge, and the context and effectiveness of each kind of strategy is discussed. The findings have implications for how public policy officials and agencies can encourage adolescents as key resocialization agents to influence their parents’ pro-environmental consumption by using the most adapted influence strategy across cultures

Social Female Adaptation / Resocialization in the Russian Reality

Adaptation to the conditions of freedom and the resocialization of persons who served their terms is determined by a gender factor, especially in societies with a bright masculine characteristic, to which the Russian society belongs too. In such societies, the process of female post-penitentiary adaptation is more complicated, because it, as before, is dominated by a more negative attitude to female crime than to male one. This is a reflection of the specifics of a society of a masculine type, where the system of double standards influences public consciousness and determines the attitude towards persons who broke the law depending on their gender. Thus, the post-penitentiary female resocialization in Russia occurs under the influence of a combination of factors and difficulties that are typical for this period of women’s lifetime, typical of ex-prisoners in Russia and connected with a specific attitude of the society to female crime as well. This situation, in many respects, determines an unsuccessful scenario of the process of post-penitentiary female resocialization and, as a result, increases risks of recurrent crime in the female environment in the modern Russian societ

The Role of Resocialization in the Disposition of California College Students toward the Legalization of Marijuana

Previous research on marijuana consumption indicates that peer influence plays a significant role in an individual’s decision to try it; however, there is little research that focuses on the role of the collegiate environment as a tool of resocialization in the disposition of college students toward marijuana. The author argues that it is through a process of resocialization that an individual will begin to become more liberal on certain issues. From the perspective of a resocialization process, the author proposes that (1)attending college will proliferate a process of resocialization, specifically in the belief that the use of marijuana by a student or other students within the college environment is not deviant in nature and is, on the contrary, a socially acceptable behavior; and that (2) college students that had been re-socialized to perceive marijuana use as part of a collegiate style of life will be more likely to agree that smoking marijuana is socially acceptable and therefore support the legalization of marijuana. Using data drawn from a 2009 availability sample of 220 CSULA students at various stages of their college education, this paper found,through a multivariate regression analysis, that respondents who had received more college education were more likely to support the legalization of marijuana.These findings clearly demonstrate a correlation between the dependent variable and key independent variable, supporting the hypothesis that attending college will proliferate a process of resocialization, at the very least, on this specific topic of support for the legalization of marijuana. From the re-socialization perspective, when exposed to a collegiate environment, most individualswill experience a transformation in previous socialized perceptions, which is significant as the implications of marijuana’s legalization suggest a relief in the current economic crisis plaguing college students across the country

From Learning Comes Meaning: Informal Comentorship and the Second-Career Academic in Education

Informal mentoring relationships develop out of mutual identification and the fulfillment of career needs. As new faculty, we struggled to balance and decipher all the various facets inherent in the research, service, and teaching responsibilities in our new roles. This paper chronicles an informal comentorship collaboration we struck up to support our efforts as second-career academics in the field of education, seeking to navigate our way through institutional resocialization at a mid-sized Canadian university. Using a collaborative autoethnographic approach, we collected data comprising handwritten notes, tape-recorded coversations, e-mail reflections, and metareflections crafted after scheduled meetings over the course of a single academic school year. We sought to link theory with practice while using our own stories, narratives, and lived experiences as a basis for understanding our respective journeys toward social health and well-being in the academy, as well as our proficiency and competence as new scholars. From our analysis, we were able to interpret more clearly our roles, responsibilities, and needs, as well as institutional and departmental culture and norms. We offer practical implications and five lessons we have learned regarding the use of informal comentorships as an approach to managing the institutional resocialization of second-career academics

SOCIAL AND PSYCHOLOGICAL CONDITIONS OF JUVENILE CONVICTS’ RESOCIALIZATION IN THE PROBATION SERVICE

The article studies social and psychological conditions of juvenile convicts’ resocialization in the probation service. Serving animprisonment sentence leads juvenile offenders to lose their social skills and it is difficult for them to adapt in society, because the personality of a juvenile offender regresses in isolation. Due to the humanization of criminal policy in Ukraine, the judicial system is changing to give preference to alternative punishments, not related to imprisonment. One such re-socializing form for juvenile offenders is probation. This punishment avoids adolescent social isolation during the most important period of personality formation.The main stages of social-psychological work with juveniles sentenced to alternative punishments are: examination of their personality, determination of measures and methods having effective social-psychological influence on them, preparation of individual resocialization programs and adolescents’ integration to societyon the basis of these programs. We determined the content of social workers’ work to re-socialize juvenile offenders.During our empirical study, we analysed documents and organised a survey to examine social workers’ functions in working with juvenile convicts and determine an expert opinion about the need for a social worker position in the probation services where juvenile convicts were registered.The sample consisted of specialists from the probation services of the city of Kyiv and Kyiv region, who worked with juvenile convicts, totally, 28 respondents.The empirical data revealed that, mainly, the specialists in law studied the features of adolescents’ personality traits and upbringing. Probation services did not have social workers in their working structure. And these facts, in turn, makes it impossible to provide high-quality resocialization. In particular, the pre-trial reports, risk assessment for repeated criminal offenses, work with juvenile convicts’ parents, organization of constructive leisure, etc. are performed by specialists without any competencies in social work.However, according to the empirical data, respondents believed that specialists in social work should participate actively in resocialization of juvenile convicts, as they would understand the features of adolescence and, therefore, would be able towork in cooperation to assess qualitatively recidivism, assist and encourage adolescents to study and get an education. Keywords: resocialization, probation, social work, convicted adolescents