An evaluation of two restorative practices on measures of moral disengagement, empathy and forgiveness among incarcerated male juvenile offenders.

Source: (2010) Dissertation. Doctor of Philosophy. TUI University.

This study examined the relationship of two independent variables on attitudes of
moral disengagement of male juvenile offenders. The independent variables included living unit grouping and attendance in optional programming of male juvenile offenders incarcerated in a Midwest facility. Research indicates that punitive practices alone have limited success in rehabilitating criminal offenders. Restorative justice characterizes a more holistic option for addressing deviant behavior by accentuating reintegration rather than segregation for offenders. Restorative justice focuses on transformative practices that hold offenders accountable for making the necessary amends for the harm caused by their transgressions to all those influenced by the incident. The archived data used in this study was collected from 142 male juvenile offenders using the following four instruments: the Davis Interpersonal Reactivity Index, the Heartland Forgiveness Scale, the Need Satisfaction Schedule II, and the Mechanisms of Moral
Disengagement. The original purpose for the collection of this data was to create evidenced based analysis of program interventions used within this facility and within this state. As explained in the approval letter in Appendix B, ―We were intrigued with his hypotheses and allowed him to use data collected by our agency.
The primary purpose of this study was to measure whether living unit grouping and optional program attendance affect the moral disengagement attitudes of incarcerated juvenile males. A secondary purpose of this study was to measure whether attitudes of empathy and forgiveness cause mediating effects on moral disengagement.