Summary
Previous studies have shown how a mentoring scheme can have a positive effect on deviant behavior. Unfortunately, none of these studies pinpoint what elements yields the positive feedback from mentoring.
The focus of this thesis is to gain an understanding of which underlying factors have an impact on a successful mentoring programme with the Danish Prison and Probation Service (Kriminalforsorgen). This is elaborated from an empirical data material composed of eleven individual interviews with mentees and mentors. From the individual interview, four commonalities can be derived which all should be included in a successful mentoring:
•Relation
•Development
•Stability
•Respect
The complexity in the mentoring scheme at the Danish Prison and Probation Service is contained within these four key elements and together is the framework for the analysis. By using Social Support, Control Theory, Social Learning, and Stigma, we have deduced that the most essential part is the dynamics between the mentee and mentor for any programme to be successful.
The development is assessed through the mentees own explanation regarding his past, present, and future. One common theme is the lack of stability during childhood, which is an element which is made through support, control, and learning from the mentor. The theoretical foundation for the thesis is equally seen by the mentor teaching and supporting the mentee into a crime-free life from which a stable everyday can be established. Another aspect is the establishment of a different thought pattern of the mentee by the mentor, i.e. viewing the same problem from a different perspective.
From the four commonalities mentioned above, it can be seen that the relation between mentee and mentor is made through mutual respect and humour. The bond will only be made if the composition of mentee and mentor is in conjunction, meaning that they should be able to get a common understanding of their dynamic relation.
A mentoring programme would appear successful depending on the dynamic relations between mentor and mentee for which this thesis will show that this can be obtained by a careful matching of the counterparts in the programme, whereby an insight and understanding of the mentees development, alongside with the elements therein.