Abstract

Juvenile delinquents are those within the age of 10 to 18 years old who committed crimes or engaged in acts against the law. Those who are caught would be punished according to the law and serve their time either in correctional institution or prison depending on the severity of crime committed. Since they are considered as minor and supposed to be at school, while serving their time, they would have to attend school within the prison. Within the Malaysian context, these schools are referred to as Integrity Schools. This study aims to explore the learning experiences of juvenile delinquents in one of these schools. This qualitative study employed a narrative approach involving two students aged 18. Data was collected using semi-structured interviews, which were divided into two parts. Part A focused on the background information of the respondents while Part B consisted of questions meant to answer five research questions. Salient themes were derived from an inductive content analysis guided by the five research questions related to the juvenile delinquents’ learning experiences while participating in educational program at the integrity school. The findings showed that both of the respondents expressed various learning experiences and there were a few similar experiences identified among both of them. Finally, the study suggested future researchers to include post-release experiences of juvenile delinquents in order to examine whether the benefits they hoped for upon release were genuinely attained.

Highlights

  • Juvenile delinquent refers to a person aged below 21who participates and acts a crime such as rape, burglaries, property crime and so on has been sentenced to the Juvenile Court[1].The phenomenon of juvenile delinquency among adolescents is increasingly alarming in Malaysia and leads them to be apprehended by law enforcers and juvenile delinquents end up in prison or correctional institution[2]

  • For offenders below 21 age, since they still hold the status as students at this age, they are regarded as juvenile delinquents and this later will raise the question of how juveniles who are serving a sentence obtain their educational right[3]

  • Due to the personal educational experiences of offenders both prior to and during incarceration, they have negative thoughts related to schooling which is due to unpleasant experiences that contribute to the feelings of embarrassment and rage at becoming ineffective in a society whereby educational attainment is greatly valued[8]

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Summary

Introduction

Juvenile delinquent refers to a person aged below 21who participates and acts a crime such as rape, burglaries, property crime and so on has been sentenced to the Juvenile Court[1].The phenomenon of juvenile delinquency among adolescents is increasingly alarming in Malaysia and leads them to be apprehended by law enforcers and juvenile delinquents end up in prison or correctional institution[2]. For offenders below 21 age, since they still hold the status as students at this age, they are regarded as juvenile delinquents and this later will raise the question of how juveniles who are serving a sentence obtain their educational right[3]. In this regard, with the introduction to correctional education as a part of the prisoner’s rehabilitation, it provides a second chance for offenders to improve their chance to be reintegrated into the society and diminishes the rate of committing similar crime in the future[4]. Respondent 1 indicated that she had experienced health problems or involved in substance abuse previously whereas Respondent 2 did not have any health problems nor involved in substance abuse before

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