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Violence from Within the Reform School

National Research Institute of Legal Policy, Helsinki

Leo Nyqvist

University of Turku

Tarja Pösö

University of Tampere

This article examines young people's talk of violence to highlight the meanings of violence. Violence is approached as a fluid concept with multiple meanings. The empirical data consist of 15 focus group interviews of young people (38 young people between 12 and 17 years of age) in two Finnish reform schools carried out by two interviewers in each session. The interviews looked at the young residents' views on violence in general and on the reform schools in particular. The analysis focuses on the narrative means that the young people employed to describe violence: violence either as an instrumental means or as a form of expression. The collective nature of violence was emphasized. The results suggest that it is important to identify the multiple meanings assigned to violence for the needs of social and criminal policy and of research.

Key Words: youth violence • residential institutions • focus groups • multiple meanings of violence

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