SAGE Journal Articles
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Graves, K. N., Frabutt, J. M., & Shelton, T. L. (2007). Factors associated with mental health and juvenile justice involvement among children with severe emotional disturbances. Youth Violence and Juvenile Justice, 5, 147-167.
This study examines the overrepresentation of children with severe emotional problems in the juvenile justice system.
Abstract
Recent research has highlighted the fact that there is an overrepresentation of children with mental health problems in the juvenile justice system. Thus, this study uses a clinical sample of children receiving mental health services to examine demographic (e.g., age, ethnicity), person level (e.g., anxious and/or depressed), family-level (e.g., number of transitions in living situations), and school-level factors associated with being involved in the mental health and juvenile justice service systems (i.e., dual involvement). Analyses were conducted separately by gender to investigate differences in dual involvement and possible differences in the predictors of dual involvement. For boys and girls, older adolescents and a higher number of living transitions were associated with dual involvement. For girls only, depression and/or anxiety and social problems were associated with dual involvement. The findings highlight the need for greater collaboration among service systems given the strong overlap between mental health and juvenile justice involvement for many children.
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Steiner, B., & Giacomazzi, A. L. (2007). Juvenile waiver, boot camp, and recidivism in a northwestern state. The Prison Journal, 87, 227-240.
Research article that examines the effectiveness of a juvenile boot camp program (as measured by recidivism) ompared to the recidivism rates for juveniles waived to criminal court and sentenced to probation.
Abstract
The waiver of juveniles to adult criminal court, an increasing phenomenon in recent years, transfers young offenders out of the juvenile system and into the adult criminal justice system, where the range of sanctions is presumably greater. Boot camps, one such sanction, are an intermediate response that are typically designed for youthful, first-time offenders, making waived youth likely candidates for placement there. The authors examine the effectiveness of a boot camp program in terms of recidivism for juveniles waived to criminal court in a northwestern state. They compare juveniles in the boot camp program to juveniles waived to criminal court and sentenced to probation using a 2-year follow-up period.
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Taylor, J., Demper, T. S., & Kistner, J. A. (2007). Predicting institutional maladjustment in severe male juvenile elinquents from criminal history and personality/clinical subtype. Criminal Justice and Behavior, 34, 769-780.
A study designed to discover the extent that those youths with various psychological and adjustment problems engage in serious institutional rules violations, and how to improve behavior.
Abstract
The contribution of personality/clinical subtype to the prediction of institutional maladjustment is examined in a sample of 652 severe male juvenile offenders (ages 12 to 19) committed to a residential facility. As expected, membership in either the group with impulsive and reactive personality/clinical features or the group with psychopathic features is associated with increased number of intensive supervision placements (ISPs) for serious institutional rules violations. Increased number of ISPs is also associated with longer term of commitment, greater number of arrests in the criminal history, and younger age at admission to the residential facility. This study suggests that personality/clinical subtypes may be useful in the prediction of important outcomes for severe male juvenile offenders.