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Abstract
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VioLit summary:
OBJECTIVE:
The objective of this research by McManus was to identify psychopathology in a group of serious delinquent adolescents, and to examine the relationship between psychiatric disturbance and serious delinquent behavior.
METHODOLOGY:
The authors employed a quasi-experimental cross-sectional design with a non-probability sample of 71 delinquent adolescents within the training school system in Michigan. Male subjects were chosen from two serious offender programs and females from the state's only residential facility for girls. To be included in the study, individuals had to fall within certain categories for the most serious types of delinquency and recidivism. These selection criteria included: 1) delinquency of a serious nature - murder, felonious assault, armed robbery, criminal sexual conduct, arson or kidnapping; 2) committing multiple nonviolent felonies as; 3) placements in a number of training schools; and 4) behavior within the program that led to a victim requiring medical attention. If two or more of these criteria were met, the adolescent was considered for inclusion in the study. 84 subjects met these criteria, with 40 males and 31 females entering the final study. Subjects completed the 51-item delinquency checklist, and data were gathered about personal and social histories from all available records. Behavior in the school was reviewed with school staff, and all subjects were evaluated by two of the authors, acting as interviewer and observer. Semistructured questions were centered upon school performance, social functioning and interpersonal relationships. Following this, the Schedule for Affective Disorders and Schizophrenia was used to evaluate psychiatric symptomatology. Each subject was then assigned a psychiatric diagnosis. Subjects also completed the Hamilton Rating Scale for Depression and the Carroll Self-Rating Scale of Depression, and interviewers assigned each person a global depression rating. Analyses included examination of frequencies and comparison of means.
FINDINGS/DISCUSSION:
The authors found no difference in age or socio-economic status when comparing subjects of different sex and race. 63% of the subjects had committed one or more violent felonies. The authors examined differences between subjects in age at first adjudicated offense, total number of adjudicated offenses and total number of violent adjudicated offenses. No difference was found between subjects of differing race, although females were found to be just as delinquent as males in the first two categories, but had lower means for number of violent adjudicated offenses. No difference was found on self-report delinquency for males and females, and a strong correlation was found between the self-report measure and the three official measures of adjudicated offenses. Most of the subjects had experienced psychosocial stressors, primarily in the form of disintegration of the family. Females were more likely than males to have been abused or neglected, and were more likely to have experienced three or more stressors. No differences in race or sex were found in placement history. 38% of subjects had been hospitalized in a psychiatric facility, and these individuals had a history of earlier placements. All subjects received multiple psychiatric diagnoses, based upon the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual, Third Edition. Schizophrenia was diagnosed in 4% of the subjects, various personality disorders in 50%, with 37% of which were borderline, major affective disorder in 15%, mental retardation in 4%, substance abuse in 13% and conduct disorder in 11%. Subjects were then divided into four diagnostic groups - the schizophrenia disorders, the affective disorders, borderline personality disorder and other - and were compared in rates of official delinquency. It was found that subjects who had been assigned a diagnosis of borderline personality disorder had a greater mean number of adjudicated violent felonies than did subjects in the other three groups. Subjects with a diagnosis of substance abuse had higher levels of total felonies than the rest of the individuals, with no differences found between single drug and polydrug users. The authors concluded that psychiatric illness was a factor that increased the risk of delinquency in adolescents, although the role of psychopathology as a causal factor remained uncertain.
AUTHORS' RECOMMENDATIONS:
The authors suggested that further research be conducted to determine if recognition of borderline personality disorder could be useful in the treatment of delinquency. They emphasized the need for large-scale studies using standardized measures and adolescents with varying degrees of delinquency, and studies which could examine the onset of psychiatric symptomatology and its relationship to delinquency. Treatment planning should be addressed, and the role of treatment in reducing delinquency should be evaluated.
EVALUATION:
The authors provide a valuable addition to the field of adolescent psychiatry. The small sample size and the clinical nature of the group precludes generalization to other groups of less serious delinquents. However, results are useful for recognition of psychopathology in serious delinquents within institutional settings. More sophisticated analyses could have determined a greater number of interesting results, and a discussion of implications of the findings would have been helpful. Despite these few limitations, the study offers an interesting examination of the incidence of psychopathology among a group of serious delinquent adolescents. (CSPV Abstract - Copyright © 1992-2007 by the Center for the Study and Prevention of Violence, Institute of Behavioral Science, Regents of the University of Colorado)
KW - Michigan
KW - Violence Causes
KW - Delinquency Causes
KW - Juvenile Offender
KW - Juvenile Violence
KW - Juvenile Delinquency
KW - Juvenile Male
KW - Juvenile Psychopathology
KW - Juvenile Female
KW - Juvenile Crime
KW - Male Crime
KW - Male Delinquency
KW - Male Offender
KW - Male Violence
KW - Female Crime
KW - Female Delinquency
KW - Female Offender
KW - Female Violence
KW - Offender Psychopathology
KW - Mental Illness
KW - Mentally Ill Juvenile
KW - Mentally Ill Offender
Language: en |