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Crime And Psychiatric Disorders Among Youth In The Us Population: An Analysis Of The National Comorbidity Survey-Adolescent Supplement, Kendell L. Coker, Philip H. Smith, Alexander Westphal, Howard V. Zonana, Sherry A. Mckee

Psychology Faculty Publications

Objective Current knowledge regarding psychiatric disorders and crime in youth is limited to juvenile justice and community samples. This study examined relationships between psychiatric disorders and self-reported crime involvement in a sample of youth representative of the US population. Method The National Comorbidity Survey–Adolescent Supplement (N = 10,123; ages 13–17 years; 2001–2004) was used to examine the relationship between lifetime DSM-IV–based diagnoses, reported crime (property, violent, other), and arrest history. Logistic regression compared the odds of reported crime involvement with specific psychiatric disorders to those without any diagnoses, and examined the odds of crime by psychiatric comorbidity. Results Prevalence of …