OBJECTIVE To delineate the probability of contact between government agencies and youths who complete suicide, to investigate the nature of those contacts, and to identify new risk factors for suicide. METHOD A descriptive epidemiological analysis of data from multiple Utah government agencies on consecutive youth suicides (n = 151) between August 1, 1996, and June 6, 1999, aged 13-21 years. ...

OBJECTIVE To quantify the degree of abuse or criminal behavior among young females presenting for reproductive health care services. METHODS An evaluation was conducted among Alaskan females age 10 through 15 years enrolled in Medicaid. Subjects were identified who had experienced reproductive health outcomes. The Medicaid file was linked to a Child Protective Services database and a Juvenile...

BACKGROUND Up to 90% of justice-involved youth report exposure to some type of traumatic event. On average, 70% of youth meet criteria for a mental health disorder with approximately 30% of youth meeting criteria for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Justice-involved youth are also at risk for substance use and academic problems, and child welfare involvement. Yet, less is known about the ...

For many years, notes Alex Piquero, youth of color have been overrepresented at every stage of the U.S. juvenile justice system. As with racial disparities in a wide variety of social indicators, the causes of these disparities are not immediately apparent. Some analysts attribute the disparities to "differential involvement"--that is, to differences in offending by minorities and whites. Other...

CRIMINAL JUSTICE AND BEHAVIOR, Vol. 37 No. 6, June 2010 695-708 DOI: 10.1177/0093854810363721 © 2010 International Association for Correctional and Forensic Psychology AUTHORS’ NOTE: Christopher T. Lowenkamp is now at the Administrative Offices of the U.S. Courts. Matthew D. Makarios is now at the University of Wisconsin–Parkside. Richard Lemke is now at the University of West Georgia. This res...

Juvenile justice and Medicaid agencies share an interest in serving delinquent youths, many of whom have a relatively poor health status. However, many state and local Medicaid policies result in these youths having no insurance coverage, making access to needed services difficult. A nationally representative survey of state and community juvenile justice and Medicaid agencies was conducted to ...

The Center for Disease Control (2009) reports that suicide is the second leading cause of death among people between the ages of 15 to 24 in the United States. This research examines the strength of suicidal ideation among a cohort of delinquent girls in Texas. This study examined 2004 data provided by the Texas Juvenile Probation Commission on referrals to the juvenile justice system in Texas ...

OBJECTIVE To conduct a critical review of all HIV prevention intervention studies conducted with adolescents in juvenile justice settings to inform future intervention development. METHOD PubMed and PsycInfo database searches were conducted for peer-reviewed, published HIV prevention intervention studies with juvenile offenders. RESULTS Sixteen studies were identified (N = 3,700 adolescents...

Although youth who commit serious violent crimes are small in number, they account for a disproportionate amount of juvenile crime. How then can we best intervene with this difficult—even dangerous—population? A major study, funded by the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention and conducted by its Study Group on Serious and Violent Juvenile Offenders, sheds new light on promising...