Future Time Perspective of Delinquents and Non-Delinquents

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Abstract
This study investigated the assumption that both delinquency and institutionalization independently have a limiting effect on the range of future time perspective (FTP). For this purpose four main groups took part in the study: institutionalized delinquents (prison inmates); institutionalized non-delinquents (soldiers); non-institutionalized delinquents (delinquents on probation); and non-institutionalized non-delinquents (vocational students). The data were consistent with the hypotheses: the prisoners showed the shortest FTP, while vocational students showed the longest. The soldiers' and the probationers' FTP was longer than that of the prisoners but shorter than that of the vocational students. Within the army and the prison, the range of FTP shortened as the subject approached release. Besides the practical implications of the findings, this study demonstrates the need to control in a proper way the factor of institutionalization when studying personality or behavioral aspects of delinquents. The need for further research on this topic is emphasized in order to ascertain the generalizability of the results of this study.

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