Social Work Commons^™

Association Between Mental Health Disorders And Juveniles' Detention For A Personal Crime, Patricia A. Stoddard Dare, Christopher A. Mallett, Craig Boitel

Social Work Faculty Publications

Background: Youth involved with juvenile courts often suffer from mental health difficulties and disorders, and these mental health disorders have often been a factor leading to the youth’s delinquent behaviours and activities.

Method: The present study of a sample population (N= 341), randomly drawn from one urban US county’s juvenile court delinquent population, investigated which specific mental health disorders predicted detention for committing a personal crime.

Results: Youth with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder and conduct disorder diagnoses were significantly less likely to commit personal crimes and experience subsequent detention, while youth with bipolar diagnoses were significantly more likely.

Conclusion: Co-ordinated youth …

Explicating Correlates Of Juvenile Offender Detention Length: The Impact Of Race, Mental Health Difficulties, Maltreatment, Offense Type, And Court Dispositions, Christopher A. Mallett, Patricia A. Stoddard Dare, Mamadou M. Seck

Social Work Faculty Publications

Detention and confinement are widely acknowledged juvenile justice system problems which require further research to understand the explanations for these outcomes. Existing juvenile court, mental health, and child welfare histories were used to explicate factors which predict detention length in this random sample of 342 youth from one large, urban Midwestern county in the United States. Data from this sample revealed eight variables which predict detention length. Legitimate predictors of longer detention length such as committing a personal crime or violating a court order were nearly as likely in this sample to predict detention length as other extra-legal predictors such …

Race, Substance Abuse, And Mental Health Disorders As Predictors Of Juvenile Court Outcomes: Do They Vary By Gender?, Chiquitia Welch-Brewer, Patricia A. Stoddard Dare, Christopher A. Mallett

Social Work Faculty Publications

Predicting juvenile court outcomes based on youthful offenders’ delinquency risk factors is important for the adolescent social work field as well as the juvenile justice system. Using a random sample of 341 delinquent youth from one Midwestern urban county, this study extends previous research by examining if race, substance abuse, and mental health disorders influence important delinquency outcomes (number of court offenses, felony conviction(s), probation supervision length, detention length, and number of probation services) differently for male and female juvenile offenders. Multivariate analysis findings revealed that race was significant only for males, and having a substance use disorder was a …

Disparate Juvenile Court Outcomes For Disabled Delinquent Youth: A Social Work Call To Action, Christopher A. Mallett

Social Work Faculty Publications

Current service delivery for at-risk youth is through four separate systems: special education; mental health and substance abuse; juvenile justice; and child welfare. Many youth (and their families) are involved with more than one of these systems, making early disability identification and subsequent systems coordination paramount in leading to more successful juvenile court outcomes. This coordination is an important and prioritized public policy concern because a majority of youth (disproportionately minority) within juvenile justice populations has been identified with mental health disorders, special education disabilities, or maltreatment histories. This study of a unique sample of probation-supervised delinquent youths ( n …