Juvenile Justice Settings Research Articles

A Meta-Analytic Review of Mental Health Interventions Targeting Youth with Internalizing Disorders in Juvenile Justice Facilities

ABSTRACTThere is general agreement in the research literature that youth in juvenile justice facilities are more likely to experience mental health disorders than their general population peers. The purpose of this systematic review and meta-analysis was to evaluate the methodological characteristics and effectiveness of mental health interventions delivered in juvenile justice settings on symptoms associated with internalizing disorders. The 11 studies included in the current review incorporated pretest-posttest research designs and were conducted with juveniles in secure facilities that reported outcome measures of depression, anxiety, posttraumatic stress disorder, or internalizing disorders. Meta-analytic findings indicate mixed results for interventions affecting internalizing symptoms and varying results between studies implementing an experimental design compared to those using a single group non-experimental design. Additionally, no studies examined how interventions could be incorporated into daily activities in juvenile justice facilities, such as school and classroom activities. Lastly, the limited number of studies included in the current review indicates a continued need for further experimental research on the effectiveness of mental health interventions delivered to youth in juvenile justice facilities.

Race and Stereotypes Matter When You Ask About Conduct Problems: Implications for Violence Risk Assessment in Juvenile Justice Settings

We examined the impact of stigma priming on self-reported severe conduct problems in two studies conducted with African American adolescents involved in the juvenile justice system. Data-collection interviews were conducted in a secure detention setting following arrest. In Study 1 ( N = 193), stigma was primed by manipulating the ordering of surveys. Adolescents who completed a questionnaire about racial identity attitudes prior to questions about severe conduct reported substantively more problematic behaviors than control group peers (β = 0.43). In Study 2 ( N = 264), stigma was primed by manipulating whether adolescents were interviewed by an African American or European American mental health professional. Racial group membership of the interviewer did not have a substantial effect on self-reported conduct problems (β = −0.04). Although the studies were not without limitations, they highlight the need for more research on the degree to which interview methods and context influence self-reported severe conduct behavior in forensic settings.

Psychopathy and Suicidal Thoughts and Behaviors Revisited: Results From a Statewide Population of Institutionalized Youth.

Suicide is the leading cause of death for incarcerated youth, and up to half of all juveniles in confinement experience suicidal ideation in addition to other psychopathology, including psychopathic personality features. Unfortunately, limited research has investigated the psychopathy-suicidality link among juvenile delinquents and using newer psychopathy measures. Based upon a statewide population of incarcerated juvenile offenders, we found that psychopathy was a significant risk factor for suicidal ideation and lifetime suicide attempts, but the latter relationship was attenuated by lifetime depression diagnosis. In addition, certain affective psychopathic features such as Stress Immunity conferred protection against suicidality, whereas behavioral and lifestyle components including Carefree Nonplanfulness, Blame Externalization, and Rebellious Nonconformity were positively linked to suicidal thoughts among the youth offenders. As these risk factors are routinely screened for in juvenile justice settings, this study's findings have considerable implications to applied practice and prevention among juvenile justice involved youth.

Attitudes Toward Punishment, Organizational Commitment, and Cynicism: A Multilevel Analysis of Staff Responses in a Juvenile Justice Agency

Staff commitment to agency goals is important in juvenile justice settings, where the mission oscillates between the often-competing goals of rehabilitating youth and punishing them. Although prior research considers how staff characteristics relate to commitment to, and/or cynicism about, criminal justice organizations, less work examines these relationships in juvenile justice settings, and even less examines the effects of staff attitudes toward punishment. The current study assesses the influence of rehabilitative and punitive attitudes on organizational commitment and cynicism in a juvenile justice agency ( n = 204). Multilevel analyses evaluating staff members within organizational units reveal that staff holding more traditional (punitive) attitudes are significantly and positively associated with cynicism, whereas staff holding rehabilitative values demonstrate greater commitment to the agency. Findings suggest attitudes toward punishment play an important role in staff commitment to, and cynicism about, justice organizations, which may affect workers’ adherence to organizational policies and goals.

The Ins and Outs: How Principals Can Smooth Transitions Between School and Juvenile Justice Centres

Researchers note that the transitions of secondary students with disability in and out of the juvenile justice system are problematic for both the young person and leadership teams of their sending and receiving schools. Much of the literature focuses on barriers to successful transitions; however, there are some accounts of positive transition practices. In this article, we identify these positive practices and outline the steps school principals and executives involved in transitioning secondary school students with disability in and out of juvenile justice settings can take to smooth the way and improve student outcomes for this vulnerable population.

Using Goal Achievement Training in juvenile justice settings to improve substance use services for youth on community supervision

BackgroundThe link between substance use and involvement in the juvenile justice system has been well established. Justice-involved youth tend to have higher rates of drug use than their non-offending peers. At the same time, continued use can contribute to an elevated risk of recidivism, which leads to further, and oftentimes more serious, involvement with the juvenile justice system. Because of these high rates of use, the juvenile justice system is well positioned to help identify youth with substance use problems and connect them to treatment. However, research has found that only about 60% of juvenile probation agencies screen all youth for substance involvement, and even fewer provide comprehensive assessment or help youth enroll in substance use treatment.MethodThis paper describes an integrated training curriculum that was developed to help juvenile justice agencies improve their continuum of care for youth probationers with substance use problems. Goal Achievement Training (GAT) provides a platform for continuous quality improvement via two sessions delivered onsite to small groups of staff from juvenile justice and behavioral health agencies. In the first session, participants are taught to identify goals and goal steps for addressing identified areas of unmet need (i.e., screening, assessment, and linkage to treatment services). In the second session, participants learn principles and strategies of data-driven decision-making for achieving these goals. This paper highlights GAT as a model for the effective implementation of cost-efficient training strategies designed to increase self-directed quality improvement activities that can be applied to any performance domain within juvenile justice settings. Efforts to monitor implementation fidelity of GAT within the specific context of the juvenile justice settings are highlighted.DiscussionChallenges to setting the stage for process improvement generally, as well as specific hurdles within juvenile justice settings are discussed, as are next steps in disseminating findings regarding the fidelity to and effectiveness of GAT in this unique context.Trial registrationClinical Trials Registration number – NCT02672150.

An Evaluation of Youth Mental Health First Aid Training in School Settings

Youth Mental Health First Aid (YMHFA) is a training program designed to help adults working with children and adolescents identify and respond to youth who are experiencing mental health problems or are in crisis. YMHFA is being implemented in a number of educational, child welfare, and juvenile justice settings across the country with little evidence of its effectiveness. As part of a broader mental health program implemented in five schools in a southeastern county in the USA, YMHFA was provided to school personnel over a 2-year period. This study presents the results of a pretest/posttest evaluation of the YMHFA training. In general, results provide preliminary evidence of the effectiveness of the YMHFA training. More specifically, results highlight the importance of YMHFA training for personnel who have never received mental health training/education and for those who do not have experience working with vulnerable youth populations.

Perceptions of Recidivism Among Incarcerated Youth: The Relationship Between Exposure to Childhood Trauma, Mental Health Status, and the Protective Effect of Mental Health Services in Juvenile Justice Settings

Research suggests that youth involved the juvenile justice system have trauma histories that are two times higher than the general youth population. Juvenile justice-involved youth also have high rates of mental health symptoms. Fewer studies have examined how trauma links to mental health symptoms among youth offenders, and even less research focuses on how mental health status and service delivery can impact their perceived likelihood for success. This study examines the effects of mental health screening and service delivery on perceived future criminal justice interactions— arrest and incarceration—among adjudicated youth (n=7,073) housed in correctional facilities. Secondary data were used to examine trauma histories, mental health needs, and mental health screening and service delivery. Significant relationships between traumatic events and mental health problems were found, along with relationships between mental health problems and mental health screening and service delivery. Most interestingly, results pointed to the strong inverse relationship between mental health service delivery and youth’s perceived likelihood for recidivism. These findings show the promise of juvenile justice systems appropriately responding to the mental health concerns of youth.

The practical utility of a life-course gang theory for intervention

This article presents findings from an exploration of the prospects of applying an empirically supported developmental life-course model of gang involvement to a juvenile justice setting. Our research strategy utilizes risk data from systems that precede or ‘feed’ criminal justice involvement (e.g., child welfare, family welfare, alcohol and drug treatment, mental health treatment, medical assistance programs, and education) to predict gang joining among 3072 youth placed on probation or committed to incarceration in Oregon. The research process entailed mining proximal indicators of risk factors for gang joining that research has identified in the individual, family, school, peer group, and community sectors of young offenders’ lives. A multivariate analysis was carried out to isolate the strongest predictors of gang joining. The analysis explores the practical utility of the Howell and Egley life-course model of gang involvement (from preschool to mid-adolescence), in everyday juvenile justice system practice in a statewide setting. Given our findings, this research could be used to help target delinquency prevention and intervention programs and services, with encouraging prospects for preventing and reducing gang involvement.

Identifying mental health issues in detained youth: Testing the structure and invariance of the Massachusetts Youth Screening Inventory-Version 2 (MAYSI-2).

This study examined the factor structure of the Massachusetts Youth Screening Instrument-Version 2 (MAYSI-2), a brief self-report measure designed to flag clinically significant mental health needs among youth entering the juvenile justice system. Participants were 981 detained youth in the southeastern United States (mean age = 14.58 years; SD = 1.28 years; 67.5% male; 71.5% African American). Confirmatory factor analyses showed that a seven-factor model represented a satisfactory solution for the data, similar to previous research. The factor structure fit well across gender, age group, race (Black/White), and offense type (violent/nonviolent). Given the widespread use of the MAYSI-2 in juvenile justice settings, examining its psychometric properties is of key importance. Implications and limitations of the study are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record

Mental Health Screening in Juvenile Justice Settings: Evaluating the Utility of the Massachusetts Youth Screening Instrument, Version 2

Allocating limited mental health resources is a challenge for juvenile justice facilities. We evaluated the clinical utility of the Massachusetts Youth Screening Instrument, Version 2 (MAYSI-2)—an instrument designed to aid in this process—in three subsamples of justice-involved youth (ages 14-17): detained girls ( n = 69), detained boys ( n = 130), and incarcerated boys ( n = 373). For perspective, we compared its performance (in the incarcerated subsample) to that of the Youth Self-Report (YSR), a more widely-used screen. The MAYSI-2 subscales were moderately useful for detecting relevant diagnoses, and differences were observed across samples. However, as a general mental health screen, the MAYSI-2 performed well (and comparably to the YSR), correctly classifying 66% to 75% of youth. When used to differentiate youth with any and without any disorder, both instruments were effective. Given the MAYSI-2’s practical advantages over the YSR (lower cost, easier administration), it may be a better option for juvenile facilities.

Implementing Trauma and Grief Component Therapy for Adolescents and Think Trauma for Traumatized Youth in Secure Juvenile Justice Settings.

We describe a multiyear pilot dissemination of a trauma-focused group treatment, Trauma and Grief Component Therapy for Adolescents, coupled with a trauma-informed staff training, Think Trauma, to six residential juvenile justice (JJ) facilities. All staff members were trained in Think Trauma. Seventy-seven youth from four facilities completed the treatment groups and 69 completed all pre- and postgroup assessment measures. The aims of this study were to determine whether trauma-focused interventions (a) could be implemented in complex JJ systems, (b) would be associated with a decrease in posttraumatic symptoms and reactions in youth, and (c) might contribute to reduced Incident Reports in facilities. A related question was whether we would receive feedback that youth who participated in the trauma and/or grief narrative components of the intervention were adversely affected. Pre- and postgroup assessments indicated significant reductions in symptoms of posttraumatic stress, depression, and anger, but not in anxiety or sexual concerns. There were significantly greater reductions in posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) among incarcerated youth who completed all modules of the group treatment intervention relative to incarcerated youth who received an abbreviated version. Two of the facilities tracked their Incident Reports and reported reductions. No Incident Reports or therapist feedback documented that the trauma/grief processing components of the intervention were destabilizing to the youth.

PBIS in Arizona Department of Juvenile Corrections: How Tier II Practices Build Upon Tier I

This article discusses the decision making process that the Arizona Department of Juvenile Corrections used to implement the framework of Positive Behavioral Supports and Interventions (PBIS) facility wide. Specifically, the article describes the process Tier II interventions in a juvenile justice setting, including the formation of a Behavioral Intervention Team, examples of two Tier II practices, exit and entrance criteria, progress monitoring, and the nomination/referral process for Tier II interventions. In closing, the article shares three case studies of youth who received various levels of intervention under our PBIS framework and lessons we learned throughout the implementation process.

Multi-Tiered Systems of Support to Improve Outcomes for Youth in Juvenile Justice Settings: Guiding Principles for Future Research and Practice

In 2014, the joint Departments of Education and Justice released Guiding Principles for Providing High-Quality Education in Juvenile Justice Secure Care Settings, including I) creating a climate and conditions conducive to learning, II) providing necessary resources to support education opportunities, III) recruiting, training, and retaining qualified staff, IV) implementing rigorous and relevant curricula, and V) supporting successful community reentry. This article outlines these five guiding principles, including ways that each can be addressed by adopting positive behavioral interventions and supports frameworks, a type of multi-tiered system of support, facility-wide within secure care juvenile justice facilities. Illustrations of how to address each guiding principle are supported by articles from the special issue of Residential Treatment for Children and Youth on multi-tiered systems of support within secure residential juvenile facilities.

The Influence of Gender and Traumatic Experiences on Length of Time Served in Juvenile Justice Settings

This study examines the influence of gender and history of trauma exposure on the length of time juvenile offenders served in post-adjudicatory placements. Data were drawn from a database that included information on all juvenile referrals from three large urban counties in Texas during a 2-year period. The study sample included all juveniles ( N = 5,019) placed in local non-secure and county-operated secure facilities. Findings indicate that female juveniles served significantly longer periods of confinement in local facilities than boys, even when controlling for other influential variables such as offense severity, prior record, age at referral, and facility type. Findings also indicate that girls with histories of trauma served longer periods in confinement than boys for violating their court-ordered conditions of probation.

Immunization Coverage Among Juvenile Justice Detainees.

This study sought to (1) quantify the baseline immunization coverage of adolescents entering the juvenile justice system and (2) assess the effect of detention-based care on immunization coverage in youth. A cross-sectional retrospective chart review was performed of 279 adolescents detained at a large juvenile detention facility. Only 3% of adolescents had received all study immunizations prior to detention. Before detention, immunization coverage was significantly lower than that for the general adolescent population for all vaccines except the first doses of hepatitis A and varicella-zoster virus vaccines. Subsequent to detention, most individual immunization coverage levels increased and were significantly higher than in the general adolescent population. The routine administration of immunizations in the juvenile justice setting can help detained youth achieve levels of immunization coverage similar to their nondetained peers.

The Experience, Impact, and Management of Professional Burnout Among Probation Officers in Juvenile Justice Settings

Little is known about the experience of professional burnout among juvenile probation officers. Following a statewide survey, 26 officers were randomly selected for qualitative interviews. Using emergent, consensus-based methods, we identified key aspects of the burnout experience. Officers described burnout in ways consistent with research definitions. Most probation officers identified negative effects of burnout, including spending less time getting to know the clients and becoming more directive. Probation officers tended to have limited strategies for managing burnout. Given the important role probation officers play in the lives of juvenile justice involved youth, more work is needed to help ameliorate burnout.

Applying the Risk-Needs-Responsivity (RNR) Model to Juvenile Justice

Application of the Risk-Needs-Responsivity (RNR) model in adult correctional research and practice is well developed, but remains underway in the juvenile justice system. The RNR model may facilitate a shift from punitive practices in the juvenile justice system toward individualized assessment and treatment of youth fostering rehabilitation and reintegration. This article reviews the history of the RNR model in adult correctional settings, its theoretical application to the juvenile justice system, and available tools and literature utilizing RNR principles in juvenile justice settings. Criticisms of applying the RNR model to the juvenile justice system and future research directions are addressed.

Juvenile Justice in the United States: Minority Youth

Background: Minority youth are disproportionately represented in the juvenile justice system in the United States. The term used to describe this phenomenon is disproportionate minority confinement (DMC). The impact of DMC on youth is significant and it also has a large impact on minority communities. As a result, the issue of DMC has become a source of political, social, and ethical debate. Method: This paper reviews the history and degree of disparities around minority youth, the contributing factors to such disparities, how mental health disparities and treatment issues have contributed to juvenile justice disparities, and recommendations to address these disparities from the mental health perspective. Results: Voluminous research supports the hypothesis that DMC is the result of differential selection and processing. Minority youth are more likely to be targeted by the police than White youth, more likely to be arrested, less likely to gain pre-trial release, more likely to be transferred to criminal court, regardless of offense type and age category, and more likely to receive a harsher sentence. Minority youth are less likely to have received mental health services prior to entering the juvenile justice system and are also less likely to be referred for treatment after they are in the system. Conclusions: DMC is part of a larger problem involving disparities in mental health care, treatment of minority youth by law enforcement personnel, and lack of cultural competence in juvenile justice settings. Attempts to address the problem need to be comprehensive and multidisciplinary, and will require education, training, and resources. Keywords: African-Americans, Black youth, minority, juvenile justice, United States.

The relation of standardized mental health screening and categorical assessment in detained male adolescents.

Having an effective triage tool is an important step toward a careful use of the restricted time and qualified personnel to perform comprehensive psychiatric assessment in juvenile justice settings. The aims of this study were to examine the construct validity of the Massachusetts Youth Screening Inventory-second version (MAYSI-2), and its likelihood to identify youths who might have a psychiatric disorder. Data from up to 781 male adolescents (mean age=16.73years) were gathered as part of the standardized mental health screening and assessment in two all-male Youth Detention Centers in the Netherlands. Categorical assessments were based on two structured diagnostic interviews. Sensitivity, specificity, positive and negative predictive values, and the area under the curve were calculated to evaluate the likelihood of the MAYSI-2 to identify youths with a psychiatric disorder. Youths with a disorder scored significantly higher on the corresponding MAYSI-2 subscale than youths without a disorder. In the total sample, 70% of the youths with a disorder met the Caution cut-off criteria on at least one MAYSI-2 scale, while youths without a psychiatric disorder were very unlikely to meet cut-off criteria for multiple MAYSI-2 scales. Overall, the sensitivity was slightly better when analyses were repeated in groups of youths from various ethnic origins. The findings supported the construct validity of the Dutch MAYSI-2 and suggested that the MAYSI-2 is a valid mental health screening tool that may serve relatively well as a triage tool. Its effectiveness, however, may differ between ethnic groups.