Justice Sensitivity and Mental Well-Being among Male Juvenile Offenders

The research explores the link between mental well-being and justice sensitivity among male juvenile offenders. 171 adolescents aged from 13 to 18 years (82 offenders and 89 law-abiding adolescents) were interviewed. The following methods were used: Justice Sensitivity Inventory (M. Schmitt), including 4 scales which measures justice sensitivity from different roles, and Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Well-being scale. Revealed, that offenders were significantly more sensitive to justice than law-abiding adolescents. Mental well-being of offenders is positively associated with all types of justice sensitivity: victim sensitivity, as well as the other three roles– observer sensitivity, beneficiary sensitivity, perpetrator sensitivity, which are the components of prosocial justice sensitivity. In the group of law-abiding adolescents significant relationship among mental well-being and justice sensitivity was not found.

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