Mentally Disordered Violent Juvenile - Is He Really Mentally Ill?

• NCJ Number: 73416
• Author(s): D Vanderwyst; J Braff
• Date Published: 1978
• Length: 17 pages
• Corporate Author: New York State Dept of Mental Hygiene
• Publication Format: Document
• Publication Type: Report (Study/Research)
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America
• Note: Prepared for presentation at the 1978 Annual Meeting of the Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences, New Orleans, Louisiana

Annotation

The relationship between violence and mental illness remains unclear. Moreover, data exist to support and dispute a connection between the two.

Abstract

The trend to medicalize deviance may be one explanation to this contradiction. To investigate this dilemma, this study examined the incidence of diagnosed psychiatric illness and the incidence of specific problem areas in a group of 20 male juvenile offenders referred to a special New York State facility for treatment of adjudicated violent youth presumed to be mentally ill. This group was compared to a group of 315 male adolescents from the same counties and admitted into psychiatric hospitals during the same period. The information used to make these comparisons was from a standardized admission form that was completed, usually by a psychiatrist, when a patient entered the psychiatric facility. There were no significant differences between the age and race of the two groups. The mean age for both groups was 15. Forty percent of the special project youth were black, compared to 42 percent in the other groups; 35 percent were white compared to 41 percent; and 25 percent were Hispanic compared to 17 percent of the control group. Though the two groups did not differ significantly with regard to severity of condition, a higher percentage of the project youth were seen as severely ill (personality behavior disorders) compared to the control group. Yet more of the youth in the other psychiatric facilities were diagnosed as schizophrenic. Because of the differences in the sample sizes, an analysis was done only on disturbances and symptoms (the problem appraisal) present for at least 20 percent of either group. Shared symptoms included delusions, hallucinations and suspicion, hyperactivity, withdrawal, and grandiosity. Anger was the highest shared symptom, both inter-and intra-group. At least 70 percent of the program youth were evaluated as having attitudes and behaviors usually associated with delinquency (antisocial and assaultive). They were also significantly more depressed than the other youth (60 percent and 29 percent, respectively). Finally, significantly fewer experimental youth had problems in family relations, but did have significantly more problems relating with other people than did the other youth. Tabular data, footnotes, and 13 references are appended.