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Mental Health Assessment Of Minors In The Juvenile Justice System, Mike Jenuwine, Curtis Heaston, Diane N. Walsh, Gene Griffin

Journal Articles

Recent reports recognize that children and adolescents with undiagnosed mental illnesses make up a significant proportion of youth in the juvenile justice system. In determining how to rehabilitate youth in the juvenile justice system, judges, lawyers, and probation officers are starting to look at mental health problems as one element contributing to delinquent behavior. It is becoming more common for attorneys to request “mental health assessments” for their juvenile clients. Problems arise, however, in determining what specifically constitutes such an assessment, and in deciding what to do with this information once it is obtained. In 2001, the Illinois Cook County …