Module 2: Screening and Assessment

1A. Mental Health Disorders Among Youth Involved with Juvenile Justice

Prevalence of Mental Health Disorders

Over the past two decades, there has been a significant and steady growth in the number of mentally ill youth coming into contact with the juvenile justice system. Not only are there more mentally ill youth entering and remaining in the system, but many of these youth have severe and persistent mental health symptoms (Underwood, Mullan, & Walter, 1997). In fact, juvenile correctional institutions are becoming, if they have not already become, one of the main facilities housing mentally ill youth. The following graphic shows the prevalence of mental health disorders among youth in the general population compared with youth involved with the juvenile justice system.

A study comparing the emotional and behavioral characteristics of youth residing in juvenile correctional facilities and youth residing in public psychiatric hospitals found the youth were similar in their psychiatric symptoms. The main factor predicting whether they would be sent to the juvenile justice system versus the mental health system was race; African American youth were more likely to be referred to a juvenile correctional facility (Cohen et al., 1990).