Skip to main content
Key Specialties
Cardiology Diabetology Endocrinology Gastroenterology Geriatrics and Gerontology Gynecology and Obstetrics Hematology Infectious Disease Internal Medicine Nephrology Neurology Oncology Pediatrics Respiratory Medicine Rheumatology Surgery
Congress Coverage
2024 ACC Congress 2023 ESMO Congress 2023 EASD Congress 2023 ERS Congress 2023 ESC Congress
Clinical Collections
Advances in Alzheimer’s

At a glance: The STEP trials

A round-up of the STEP phase 3 clinical trials evaluating semaglutide for weight loss in people with overweight or obesity.
ADVANCED SEARCH
Log in
Top
Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Mental Health
Published in: Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Mental Health 1/2019

Open Access 01-12-2019 | Research article

The relation between mental health problems and future violence among detained male juveniles

Authors: Olivier F. Colins, Thomas Grisso

Published in: Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Mental Health | Issue 1/2019

Login to get access

Abstract

Background

Detention personnel may assume that mental health problems heighten the likelihood of future violence in detained youth. This study explored whether brief mental health screening tools are of value for alerting staff to a detained youth’s potential for future violent offending.

Method

Boys (n = 1259; Mean age = 16.65) completed the Massachusetts Youth Screening Instrument-Second Version (MAYSI-2) and the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) as part of a clinical protocol. Official records were collected to index past and future violent offending.

Results

A few significant positive and negative relationships between MAYSI-2 and SDQ scale scores and future violent offending were revealed, after controlling for age, past violent offending, and follow-up time. These relations were almost entirely dissimilar across the ethnic groups, even to the extent of finding opposite relations for boys in different ethnic groups.

Conclusions

The small number of relations and their small effect sizes suggest little likelihood that screening for mental health problems in boys who are detained in the Netherlands offers any potential for identifying youth at risk for committing future violent crimes. The current findings also suggest that ethnic differences in the relation between mental health problems and future criminality must be considered in future studies.
Appendix
Available only for authorised users
Footnotes
1
Earlier work suggested that 5% of the detained youth in the two detention centers declined to take the MAYSI-2 and the SDQ items as part of the clinical protocol [26]. Although we do not know how many boys refused to complete the questionnaires, it can be assumed that almost all of the boys that were detained between May 2008 and December 2012 are represented in the current data base.
 
2
The MAYSI-2 was designed for use with youth aged 12–17 years. Prior work on the Dutch MAYSI-2 nevertheless showed that support for the internal consistency and validity of the MAYSI-2 scores remained substantially similar when youth older than 18 years of age were included [5].
 
3
Technically, the registrations are better referred to as ‘criminal justice contacts’ because one could be arrested by the police (e.g., street fight), but quickly be released after interrogation at the police station. In such instance one would be ‘arrested’ but no record in the GDR would appear. The GDR-registrations refer to all criminal cases of which the police have the opinion that they are in need of the public prosecutor’s attention, and thus carry a stronger indication of guilt than do arrests. Yet for reasons of brevity, we will use ‘arrests’ instead ‘of ‘criminal justice contacts’.
 
4
Because the measurement invariance of the Dutch MAYSI-2 and SDQ across ethnic groups has not yet been tested, results from the between-group comparisons concerning the MAYSI-2 and SDQ should be interpreted with caution and are only provided for exploratory purposes.
 
Literature
1.
Colins OF, Vermeiren R, Vreugdenhil C, van den Brink W, Doreleijers T, Broekaert E. Psychiatric disorders in detained male adolescents: a systematic literature review. Can J Psychiatry. 2010;55(4):255–63.CrossRef
2.
Fazel S, Doll H, Langstrom N. Mental disorders among adolescents in juvenile detention and correctional facilities: a systematic review and metaregression analysis of 25 surveys. J Am Acad Child Adolesc Psychiatry. 2008;47(9):1010–9.PubMed
3.
Grisso T, Fusco S, Paiva-Salisbury M, Perrauot R, Williams V, Barnum R. The Massachusetts youth screening instrument-version 2 (MAYSI-2): comprehensive research review. Worcester: University of Massachusetts Medical School; 2012.
4.
Wasserman GA, Jensen PS, Ko SJ, Cocozza J, Trupin E, Angold A, et al. Mental health assessments in juvenile justice: report on the consensus conference. J Am Acad Child Adolesc Psychiatry. 2003;42(7):752–61.CrossRef
5.
Colins OF, Grisso T, Vahl P, Guy L, Mulder E, Hornby N, et al. Standardized screening for mental health needs of detained youths from various ethnic origins: the Dutch Massachusetts Youth Screening Instrument-Second Version (MAYSI-2). J Psychopathol Behav Assess. 2015;37(3):481–92.CrossRef
6.
Grisso T. Double jeopardy: adolescent offenders with mental disorders. Chicago: University of Chicago Press; 2004.
7.
Schubert CA, Mulvey EP, Glasheen C. Influence of mental health and substance use problems and criminogenic risk on outcomes in serious juvenile offenders. J Am Acad Child Adolesc Psychiatry. 2011;50(9):925–37.CrossRef
8.
Skeem JL, Winter E, Kennealy PJ, Louden JE, Tatar JR II. Offenders with mental illness have criminogenic needs, too: toward recidivism reduction. Law Hum Behav. 2014;38(3):212.CrossRef
9.
Colins OF, Vermeiren R, Vahl P, Markus M, Broekaert E, Doreleijers T. Parent-reported attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder and subtypes of conduct disorder as risk factor of recidivism in detained male adolescents. Eur Psychiatry. 2012;27(5):329–34.CrossRef
10.
Colins OF, Vermeiren R, Vahl P, Markus M, Broekaert E, Doreleijers T. Psychiatric disorder in detained male adolescents as risk factor for serious recidivism. Can J Psychiatry. 2011;56(1):44–50.CrossRef
11.
Elkington KS, Teplin LA, Abram KM, Jakubowski JA, Dulcan MK, Welty LJ. Psychiatric disorders and violence: a study of delinquent youth after detention. J Am Acad Child Adolesc Psychiatry. 2015;54(4):302–12.CrossRef
12.
Grisso T, Barnum R. Massachusetts Youth screening instrument, version 2: MAYSI-2: user’s manual and technical report. Sarasota: Professional Resource Press; 2006.
13.
Delisi M, Caudill JW, Trulson CR, Marquart JW, Vaughn MG, Beaver KM. Angry inmates are violent inmates: a poisson regression approach to youthful offenders. J For Psychol Pract. 2010;10(5):419–39.
14.
Delisi M, Vaughn MG, Beaver KM, Wright JP, Hochstetler A, Kosloski AE, et al. Juvenile sex offenders and institutional misconduct: the role of thought psychopathology. Crim Behav Ment Health. 2008;18(5):292–305.CrossRef
15.
Douglas KS, Epstein ME, Poythress NG. Criminal recidivism among juvenile offenders: testing the incremental and predictive validity of three measures of psychopathic features. Law Hum Behav. 2008;32(5):423–38.CrossRef
16.
Colins OF, van Damme L, Andershed H, Fanti KA, DeLisi M. Self-reported psychopathic traits and antisocial outcomes in detained girls: a prospective study. Youth Viol Juvenile Justice. 2017;15(2):138–53.CrossRef
17.
Goodman R. The Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire: a research note. J Child Psychol Psychiatry. 1997;38(5):581–6.CrossRef
18.
Colins OF, Boonmann C, Veenstra J, van Domburgh L, Buffing F, Doreleijers TAH, et al. Mental health problems and recidivism among detained male adolescents from various ethnic origins. Eur Child Adolesc Psychiatry. 2013;22(8):481–90.CrossRef
19.
Edens JF, Boccaccini MT. Taking forensic mental health assessment “out of the lab” and into “the real world”: introduction to the special issue on the field utility of forensic assessment instruments and procedures. Psychol Assess. 2017;29(6):599.CrossRef
20.
Achenbach TM, Rescorla L. Multicultural understanding of child and adolescent psychopathology: implications for mental health assessment. Guilford: Guilford Press; 2007.
21.
Desai RA, Falzer PR, Chapman J, Borum R. Mental Illness, violence risk, and race in juvenile detention: implications for disproportionate minority contact. Am J Orthopsychiatry. 2012;82(1):32–40.CrossRef
22.
Cauffman E. A statewide screening of mental health symptoms among juvenile offenders in detention. J Am Acad Child Adolesc Psychiatry. 2004;43(4):430–9.CrossRef
23.
Wierson M, Forehand R. Predicting recidivism in juvenile delinquents—the role of mental-health diagnoses and the qualification of conclusions by race. Behav Res Ther. 1995;33(1):63–7.CrossRef
24.
Piquero AR, Jennings WG, Diamond B, Reingle JM. A systematic review of age, sex, ethnicity, and race as predictors of violent recidivism. Int J Offender Ther Comparat Criminol. 2015;59(1):5–26.CrossRef
25.
Colins OF. Assessing reactive and proactive aggression in detained adolescents outside of a research context. Child Psychiatry Hum Dev. 2016;47(1):159–72.CrossRef
26.
Vahl P, Colins OF, Lodewijks HPB, Markus MT, Doreleijers TAH, Vermeiren R. Psychopathic-like traits in detained adolescents: clinical usefulness of self-report. Eur Child Adolesc Psychiatry. 2014;23(8):691–9.CrossRef
27.
Colins OF, Grisso T, Mulder E, Vermeiren R. The relation of standardized mental health screening and categorical assessment in detained male adolescents. Eur Child Adolesc Psychiatry. 2015;24(3):339–49.CrossRef
28.
Grisso T, Barnum R, Fletcher KE, Cauffman E, Peuschold D. Massachusetts Youth Screening Instrument for mental health needs of juvenile justice youths. J Am Acad Child Adolesc Psychiatry. 2001;40(5):541–8.CrossRef
29.
Colins OF, Vahl P, Wolf B. Massachusetts Youth Screening Instrument-Second Version (MAYSI-2). Sarasota: International Standard Mini-Manual; 2012.
30.
Inforsana. Massachusetts Youth Screening Instrument-Second Version (MAYSI-2). Sarasota: International Standard Mini-Manual; 2012.
31.
Barker C, Pistrang N, Elliot R. Research methods in clinical and counselling psychology. New York: Wiley; 1994.
32.
Schmitt N. Uses and abuses of coefficient alpha. Psychol Assess. 1996;8(4):350.CrossRef
33.
Clark LA, Watson D. Constructing validity: basic issues in objective scale development. Psychol Assess. 1995;7(3):309.CrossRef
34.
Jacoby SF, Tach L, Guerra T, Wiebe DJ, Richmond TS. The health status and well-being of low-resource, housing-unstable, single-parent families living in violent neighbourhoods in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Health Soc Care Community. 2017;25(2):578–89.CrossRef
35.
Williamson A, McElduff P, Dadds M, D’Este C, Redman S, Raphael B, et al. The construct validity of the strengths and difficulties questionnaire for aboriginal children living in Urban New South Wales, Australia. Aus Psychol. 2014;49(3):163–70.CrossRef
36.
Yates P, Kramer T, Garralda ME. Use of a routine mental health measure in an adolescent secure unit. Br J Psychiatry. 2006;188(6):583–4.CrossRef
37.
Goodman R, Meltzer H, Bailey V. The Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire: a pilot study on the validity of the self-report version. Eur Child Adolesc Psychiatry. 1998;7(3):125–30.CrossRef
38.
Goodman R. Psychometric properties of the strengths and difficulties questionnaire. J Am Acad Child Adolesc Psychiatry. 2001;40(11):1337–45.CrossRef
39.
Van Widenfelt BM, Goedhart AW, Treffers PD, Goodman R. Dutch version of the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ). Eur Child Adolesc Psychiatry. 2003;12(6):281–9.CrossRef
40.
CBS. Central Bureau of Statistics. CBS Bevolking; 2012.
41.
Monahan J, Skeem JL. Risk assessment in criminal sentencing. Ann Rev Clin Psychol. 2016;12:489–513.CrossRef
42.
Colins OF, Andershed H, Pardini DA. Psychopathic traits as predictors of future criminality, intimate partner aggression, and substance use in young adult men. Law Hum Behav. 2015;39(6):547–58.CrossRef
43.
Gallin JI, Ognibene FP. Principles and practice of clinical research. New York: Elsevier; 2012.
44.
Coghill D, Sonuga-Barke EJ. Annual research review: categories versus dimensions in the classification and conceptualisation of child and adolescent mental disorders–implications of recent empirical study. J Child Psychol Psychiatry. 2012;53(5):469–89.CrossRef
45.
Muthén LK, Muthén B. Mplus (6.12) [Computer software]. 2011.
46.
Nylund KL, Asparouhov T, Muthén BO. Deciding on the number of classes in latent class analysis and growth mixture modeling: a Monte Carlo simulation study. Struct Equ Model. 2007;14(4):535–69.CrossRef
47.
Kofler MJ, McCart MR, Zajac K, Ruggiero KJ, Saunders BE, Kilpatrick DG. Depression and delinquency covariation in an accelerated longitudinal sample of adolescents. J Consult Clin Psychol. 2011;79(4):458.CrossRef
48.
Wolff JC, Ollendick TH. The comorbidity of conduct problems and depression in childhood and adolescence. Clin Child Fam Psychol Rev. 2006;9(3–4):201–20.CrossRef
49.
Wibbelink CJ, Hoeve M, Stams GJJ, Oort FJ. A meta-analysis of the association between mental disorders and juvenile recidivism. Aggress Violent Beh. 2017;33:78–90.CrossRef
50.
Vermeiren R, Schwab-Stone M, Ruchkin V, De Clippele A, Deboutte D. Predicting recidivism in delinquent adolescents from psychological and psychiatric assessment. Comp Psychiatry. 2002;43:142.CrossRef
51.
Zara G, Farrington DP. Childhood and adolescent predictors of late onset criminal careers. J Youth Adolesc. 2009;38(3):287–300.CrossRef
52.
Butler MA, Loney BR, Kistner J. The Massachusetts Youth Screening Instrument as a predictor of institutional maladjustment in severe male juvenile offenders. Crim Justice Behavior. 2007;34(4):476–92.CrossRef
53.
Stevanovic D, Jafari P, Knez R, Franic T, Atilola O, Davidovic N, et al. Can we really use available scales for child and adolescent psychopathology across cultures? A systematic review of cross-cultural measurement invariance data. Transcult Psychiatry. 2017;54(1):125–52.CrossRef
Metadata
Title
The relation between mental health problems and future violence among detained male juveniles
Authors
Olivier F. Colins
Thomas Grisso
Publication date
01-12-2019
Publisher
BioMed Central
Published in
Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Mental Health / Issue 1/2019
Electronic ISSN: 1753-2000
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1186/s13034-019-0264-5

Other articles of this Issue 1/2019

Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Mental Health 1/2019 Go to the issue

Research article

Clinicians’ attitudes toward standardized assessment and diagnosis within child and adolescent psychiatry

Research article

Providing manualized individual trauma-focused CBT to unaccompanied refugee minors with uncertain residence status: a pilot study

Research article

Gender-specific substance use patterns and associations with individual, family, peer, and school factors in 15-year-old Portuguese adolescents: a latent class regression analysis

Research article

Utilizing a family-based economic strengthening intervention to improve mental health wellbeing among female adolescent orphans in Uganda

Research article

A pilot and feasibility study of a cognitive behavioural therapy-based anxiety prevention programme for junior high school students in Japan: a quasi-experimental study

Editorial

Social factors associated with non-suicidal self-injury (NSSI)