Abstract
BackgroundJuvenile delinquency has become a significant global problem. Conduct disorder (CD), among other psychiatric disorders, has assumed prominence in its association with juvenile offending as well as criminality in adulthood. Despite this knowledge, little attention is given to this problem especially as it affects adjudicated adolescent offenders in developing countries.AimTo examine the prevalence and correlates of CD among incarcerated adolescents in a Nigerian Borstal Institution and to investigate its independent predictors.MethodsA cross-sectional descriptive study was conducted among 147 inmates of a Borstal Institution in Abeokuta, South Western Nigeria. A self-administered questionnaire and interviewer administered MINI-KID were used. The associations between conduct disorder and socio demographic as well as forensic variables were investigated using Chi square statistics while logistic regression was used to predict CD.ResultsOut of 147 respondents, 83 (56.5 %) met the criteria for CD with a mean age 17.1 ± 1.1. Of the socio-demographic and forensic variables investigated, number of siblings (OR 4. 630; p = 0.010; 95 % CI 1.433–14.964) and previous history of incarceration (OR 4. 99; p = 0.043; 95 % CI 1.048–23.846) emerged as independent predictors of CD.ConclusionsThis study recorded a high prevalence of conduct disorder among a sample of incarcerated juvenile offenders. The association of conduct disorder with large family size and recidivism highlights the need for comprehensive early interventions focused on improving parental supervision in large families as well as other re-training programs aimed at reducing juvenile re-offending.
Highlights
Juvenile delinquency has become a significant global problem
The association of conduct disorder with large family size and recidivism highlights the need for comprehensive early interventions focused on improving parental supervision in large families as well as other re-training programs aimed at reducing juvenile re-offending
Our study showed that more than half (56.5 %) of the incarcerated participants had conduct disorder (CD); a rate comparable to those observed across Europe and America, in systematic review of 25 surveys (56.5 vs 52.8 %) [7], but slightly lower than what was reported by Adeguloye (64.2 %) [5] in Ilorin, North Central part of Nigeria
Summary
Juvenile delinquency has become a significant global problem. Conduct disorder (CD), among other psychiatric disorders, has assumed prominence in its association with juvenile offending as well as criminality in adulthood. Parents had long worried over what to do with children considered to be ‘beyond parental control’ several decades before conduct disorder (CD) became a medical diagnosis in late sixties [1] It has become one of the most frequently diagnosed psychiatric condition in present-day child psychiatry [2]. Psychiatric disorders ranging from mood disorders, psychosis, anxiety disorders, ADHD, disruptive behavioral disorder and substance abuse disorder had been widely described in these settings Of these psychiatric disorders, CD commands some level of prominence in showing an association with offending and predicting adult criminality later in life and persistence of other co-morbid mental disorders [9, 10]. As there is much evidence that CD is a precursor of criminality (and antisocial personality disorder), there is a strong need for interventions in childhood and adolescence [9,10,11]
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