ABSTRACT
OBJECTIVES: This study was performed to investigate the factors predicting recidivism within 6 months after release in arrested juvenile delinquents for proper screening and intervention of high-risk subjects. METHODS: The subjects consisted of 125 arrested male adolescents who were released after legal procedure in prosecutor office and court. The socio-demographic and crime-related characteristics were evaluated by police records, and the familial, psychopathology and personality characteristics, and the level of moral development measured by the Conflict Tactics Scale(CTS), Family Environment Scale(FES), Parental Behavioral Inventory, Symptom Checklist-90-Revised(SCL-90-R), Beck Depression Inventory, Beck Anxiety Inventory, Korean form of Moral Developmental Inventory for adolescents, and Personality Disorder Questionnaire-Revised(PDQ-R). RESULTS: The recidivism rate within 6 months after release was 44% of the initial sample. Recidivists were younger and had higher scores on Anger-hostility scale of SCL-90-R and lower principle morality score than nonrecidivists. More recidivists had history of physical abuse and antisocial personality disorder on PDQ-R than nonrecidivists. They also showed the crimerelated characteristics of lower percent of violence crime, higher incidence of previous conviction, younger age of the first crime. Among those variables, logistic regression showed that age of first crime, antisocial personality disorder, and history of physical abuse best predicted the recidivism within 6months after release. CONCLUSION: These results of present study suggest that the recidivism rate of arrested male adolescents is very high, and the age of first crime, antisocial personality disorder and history of physical abuse were key factors predicting recidivism. To prevent repeated crime of delinquent adolescents, the development of programs for those high-risk groups to help rehabilitation and adaptation in community would be essential.