NCJ Number
119019
Journal
Journal of Orthomolecular Psychiatry Volume: 8 Issue: 3 Dated: (1979) Pages: 149-157
Date Published
1979
Length
9 pages
Annotation
Differences in the diets of juveniles with no history of arrest or adjudication and chronic juvenile offenders were investigated.
Abstract
The chronic juvenile offender group was defined to include juveniles adjudicated for three or more offenses during the previous 24 months, of which one offense was a felony. Subjects in this group came from the King County Juvenile Probation Department and the Pierce County Juvenile Justice Center in Washington State. The control group of behaviorally disordered juveniles was selected from special education classes of the Tacoma, Wash., public school system. The Nutrition Behavior Inventory was used to determine physiological and behavioral relationships between the two groups. A 10-item survey instrument, the Delinquency Diet Survey, was employed to obtain data on each subject's lifestyle, family background, and dietary habits. A highly significant relation was found between the amount of milk consumed by each group. Matched males in the experimental group consumed an average of 64 ounces of milk a day, while controls drank only 30 ounces per day; females showed a similar pattern. Findings revealed significant overall differences between experimental and control subjects, although milk consumption was the most striking result. Further study is recommended to determine whether eliminating or reducing milk intake will have a favorable effect on juvenile offender behavior and rearrest rates. 34 references, 1 table, 4 figures.