Psychiatric Disorders Among Detained Youths: A Comparison of Youths Processed in Juvenile Court and Adult Criminal Court

Abstract

Objective To compare the prevalence of psychiatric disorders in youths processed in adult criminal court with youths processed in the juvenile court. Methods Participants were a stratified random sample of 1829 youths (10–18 years of age) arrested and detained in Chicago, IL. Data on 1715 youths (13–18 years of age) from version 2.3 of the Diagnostic Interview Schedule for Children are presented, including 1440 youths processed in juvenile court and 275 youths processed in adult criminal court. Results Among youths processed in the adult criminal court, 66% had at least one psychiatric disorder and 43% had two or more types of disorders. Prevalence rates and the number of comorbid types of disorders were not significantly different between youths processed in adult criminal court and those processed in the juvenile court. Among youths processed in adult criminal court, those sentenced to prison had significantly greater odds of having disruptive behavior, substance use, or comorbid affective and anxiety disorders than those receiving a less severe sentence. Males, African Americans, Hispanics, and older youths had greater odds of being processed in adult criminal court than females, non-Hispanic whites, and younger youths, even after controlling for felony-level violent crime. Conclusions Community and correctional systems must be prepared to provide psychiatric services to youths transferred to adult criminal court, and especially to youths sentenced to prison. Psychiatric service providers must also consider the disproportionate representation of racial/ethnic minorities in the transfer process when developing and implementing services.

Attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), substance use disorders, and criminality: a difficult problem with complex solutions

“…Similarly, studies with adolescent offenders conducted in Iran (40), Brazil (41,43), USA (42,46), the Netherlands (44), Denmark (45), and Korea (47) also showed very differing prevalence rates of ADHD (Table 1). Variations in prevalence rates among study samples may be due to differences in instruments used for the assessment of ADHD, demographic characteristics of the samples in terms of gender and age, legal systems and facilities, and psychiatric comorbidities.…”

“…The National Institute of Mental Health Diagnostic Interview Schedule for Children (NIMH DISC) for children and adolescents (151) and the MINI International Neuropsychiatric Interview (MINI) for adults (152) have been frequently used in epidemiologic studies among criminal offenders (34,35,37,42,44,46).…”

Pathways to Early Violent Death: The Voices of Serious Violent Youth Offenders

“…Youths detained in adult jails are 36 times more likely to commit suicide than are youths detained in juvenile detention facilities and 19 times more likely to commit suicide than are youths in the general population. 30 Recent findings on youths transferred to adult court indicate that youths may experience worse long-term psychiatric outcomes than do youths processed in juvenile court; however, few empirical studies on this population of youths are available. 29 Previous studies that compared psychiatric disorders among youths processed in juvenile court and youths processed in adult criminal court indicate that for youths processed in adult criminal court the prevalence of specific and comorbid psychiatric disorders is as high as or higher than that for youths processed in juvenile court.…”

The effect of race/ethnicity on the relation between substance use disorder diagnosis and substance use treatment receipt among male serious adolescent offenders

“…The rate of substance use disorders in this subsample was higher than rates in the general adolescent population (which range from about 6.4-11.4%, see, e.g., Merikangas, He, Burstein, Swanson, Avenevoli, Cui, et al, 2010), but lower than those found in some other juvenile offender samples, where as many as 50.7% of males suffered from a substance use disorder (Teplin, Abram, McClelland, Dulcan, & Mericle, 2002). This may be explained by differences in measurement tools, diagnostic criteria, and study settings (Teplin et al, 2002; Washburn, Teplin, Voss, Simon, Abram, & McClelland, 2008). Race/ethnicity differences in rates of substance use disorder in the current study were similar to those found by Teplin and colleagues, with African-Americans being diagnosed the least and non-Hispanic Caucasians being diagnosed the most (Teplin et al, 2002).…”