Juvenile Offenders and Mental Illness

• NCJ Number: 181171
• Journal: Psychiatry, Psychology and Law Volume: 6 Issue: 2 Dated: 1999 Pages: 143-152
• Author(s): Thomas Grisso
• Date Published: 1999
• Length: 10 pages
• Publication Format: Article
• Publication Type: Report (Study/Research)
• Language: English
• Country: Australia
• Note: This article was presented in Melbourne, Australia, on March 18, 1999, as the R.G. Myers Memorial Lecture.

Annotation

This paper considers what is known about the empirical overlap between mental illness and delinquency, what proportion of mentally ill youths are delinquent as well as the proportion of delinquent youths who are mentally ill, how best to identify youths with mental illnesses as they enter the juvenile justice system, and the issues to be faced in responding to their mental health needs once they are identified.

Abstract

The author concludes that there is currently no satisfactory system for classifying mental disorders among children and adolescents and outlines what is known about certain childhood mental disorders that apparently have a special significance for delinquent behavior. The paper reviews studies on the overlap between delinquency and mental illness among youth and argues for the use of standardized screening tools for the assessment of youth. The author explains the Massachusetts Youth Screening Instrument as a tool for identifying mentally ill youths. The author further argues that the increasingly punitive trends in the processing and disposition of juveniles in U.S. criminal justice systems have provided significant opportunities for learning more about and treating mental illnesses among juvenile offenders. This is because the more punitive handling of juveniles has required that stricter and more comprehensive due process rights be applied, including the determination of competency to stand trial and the more precise classification of offender needs. 19 references