NCJ Number
75648
Journal
Archives of General Psychiatry Volume: 38 Issue: 2 Dated: (February 1981) Pages: 211-213
Date Published
1981
Length
3 pages
Annotation
A comparison of the medical histories of matched samples of nonincarcerated delinquent girls, incarcerated delinquent girls, and nondelinquent girls revealed that female delinquents had significantly more medical problems than nondelinquents.
Abstract
Most studies of female delinquents have focused on psychiatric and family factors that affect deviance, or they have narrowed health investigations to gynecological problems. However, clinical experience suggests that delinquent girls often exhibit injury to the central nervous system (CNS) and that the timing of a physical trauma has a positive relationship to deviant behavior. This project selected a random sample of 28 delinquent girls known to the juvenile court in the 1970's and 28 girls who had been incarcerated in a correctional institution from an impoverished, socially deprived mental health catchment area. A matching nondelinquent sample was drawn from a population with similar socioeconomic characteristics. Using the girls' hospital records, medical histories were evaluated according to numbers of visits, timing of visits, and types of services used. Analysis showed that by age 17, the delinquent girls had made a significantly greater number of hospital visits than had the nondelinquent group. They also had more head or face injuries and obstetric and gynecological problems. A comparison of incarcerated and nonincarcerated delinquent girls indicated that the incarcerated individuals had a far larger number of accidents and injuries between the ages of 17 and 22 and that many of these injuries involved the head or face. Medical histories of incarcerated girls also contained a higher incidence of perinatal difficulties than those of nondelinquents. According to data on the hospital charts, several of the delinquents had been physically abused. Evaluation of the hospital records suggested that abuse and neglect had been grossly underrecognized by the medical staff. The occurrence of physical trauma during the delinquents' early years implies that CNS trauma may have contributed to the development of delinquency in some cases. Furthermore, additional assaults from fathers or boyfriends marked the late adolescent years of the delinquent girls. In conclusion, seriously delinquent females were characterized by a constellation of CNS injury, inadequate parenting, and violent abuse in the context of socially adverse conditions. Graphs and a bibliography of 20 references are included.