One hundred girls in care referred to an adolescent forensic mental health service

Abstract

Abstract There is a paucity of literature relating to adolescent females who offend. This retrospective case note study of 100 consecutive referrals of girls aged 11–17 in care to an Adolescent Forensic Mental Health Service describes a group of disturbed girls at the extreme of the continuum. Sixty-eight girls had assaulted at least one person; a further 10 had caused damage to objects; 76 had deliberately harmed themselves; 90 had behaved in a way which was against the law in the 6 months prior to assessment, although only 42 had been charged with an offence. The referrers only correctly documented violent and aggressive behaviours in 54% of cases. Eleven girls had ever been statemented as having special educational needs. Seventy-one had been abused in some way, the majority having been multiply abused. Of the violent girls, 50% had misused substances. More abused girls had been violent to objects (49.3%) or set fires (21.1%). A high number of deliberately self-harming girls had a mental illness (13.6%), and a significantly high number of deliberately self-harming girls misused substances (50%) and had been sexually abused (53.9%). Areas for future research are discussed.