Negative reactions to processing and substance use among young incarcerated males

This paper examines how negative reactions to arrest, adjudication, and incarceration relate to substance use among young males who are incarcerated. It developes scales from Matza's presentation of a sense of injustice and from the theory and research on prisonization. Discriminant function analysis shows that substance use of inmates at a medium security facility is associated with negative reactions to processing, especially a sense of injustice about arrest and adjudication and isolation in the institution.