The inherent limits of predicting school violence.

The recent media hype over school shootings has led to demands for methods of identifying school shooters before they act. Despite the fact that schools remain one of the safest places for youths to be, schools are beginning to adopt identification systems to determine which students could be future killers. The methods used to accomplish this not only are unproven but are inherently limited in usefulness and often do more harm than good for both the children and the school setting. The authors' goals in the present article are to place school shootings in perspective relative to other risks of violence that children face and to provide a reasonable and scientifically defensible approach to improving the safety of schools.

Massachusetts Youth Screening Instrument for mental health needs of juvenile justice youths.

OBJECTIVE: This report describes the development of the Massachusetts Youth Screening Instrument-Second Version (MAYSI-2), a brief screening measure to identify youths with potential mental, emotional, or behavioral problems at entry points in the juvenile justice system. METHOD: This 52-item self-report measure, with content relevant to common mental health problems in delinquent populations, was administered to 1,279 male and female youths, aged 12 to 17, in Massachusetts juvenile justice facilities. A subsample of youths also received the Millon Adolescent Clinical Inventory (MACI) and the Youth Self-Report (YSR). The instrument was subsequently administered to 3,804 male and female youths in California Youth Authority custody. RESULTS: Factor analyses of the 52 items identified seven scales that were conceptually associated with various mental, emotional, and behavioral problems of youths, which were generally confirmed by separate factor analyses with the California sample. The scales manifested adequate internal consistency and test-retest reliability. Most scales were substantially correlated with conceptually similar scales in the MACI and YSR, and they identified most youths who scored at clinically significant levels on those instruments. CONCLUSIONS: The MAYSI-2 shows promise as a reliable and valid screening tool to assist juvenile justice staff in identifying youths who may need an immediate response to mental or emotional problems.

Assessment of "juvenile psychopathy" and its association with violence: a critical review.

Interest in the construct of psychopathy as it applies to children and adolescents has become an area of considerable research interest in the past 5-10 years, in part due to the clinical utility of psychopathy as a predictor of violence among adult offenders. Despite interest in "juvenile psychopathy" in general and its relationship to violence in particular, relatively few studies specifically have examined whether operationalizations of this construct among children and adolescents predict various forms of aggression. This article critically reviews this literature, as well as controversies regarding the assessment of adult psychopathic "traits" among juveniles. Existing evidence indicates a moderate association between measures of psychopathy and various forms of aggression, suggesting that this construct may be relevant for purposes of short-term risk appraisal and management among juveniles. However, due to the enormous developmental changes that occur during adolescence and the absence of longitudinal research on the stability of this construct (and its association with violence), we conclude that reliance on psychopathy measures to make decisions regarding long-term placements for juveniles is contraindicated at this time.

(Im)maturity of judgment in adolescence: why adolescents may be less culpable than adults.

A crucial step in the establishment of effective policies and regulations concerning legal decisions involving juveniles is the development of a complete understanding of the many factors-psychosocial as well as cognitive-that affect the evolution of judgment over the course of adolescence and into adulthood. This study examines the influence of three psychosocial factors (responsibility, perspective, and temperance) on maturity of judgment in a sample of over 1,000 participants ranging in age from 12 to 48 years. Participants completed assessments of their psychosocial maturity in the aforementioned domains and responded to a series of hypothetical decision-making dilemmas about potentially antisocial or risky behavior. Socially responsible decision making is significantly more common among young adults than among adolescents, but does not increase appreciably after age 19. Individuals exhibiting higher levels of responsibility, perspective, and temperance displayed more mature decision-making than those with lower scores on these psychosocial factors, regardless of age. Adolescents, on average, scored significantly worse than adults, but individual differences in judgment within each adolescent age group were considerable. These findings call into question recent arguments, derived from studies of logical reasoning, that adolescents and adults are equally competent and that laws and social policies should treat them as such.

Personality traits in juvenile delinquents: relation to criminal behavior and recidivism.

OBJECTIVE: To examine the relation between personality traits and criminal behavior and to determine whether such factors are predictive of future recidivism. METHOD: A sample of 481 incarcerated males (mean age = 16 years) completed questionnaires assessing distress and restraint relating to personality characteristics. In addition, official criminological data were gathered from subjects' records. A subsample of 148 juveniles was followed up to 4.5 years after release and examined for rearrests and time out of prison since last incarceration. RESULTS: Results indicate a significant association between self-reported levels of distress and restraint and prior criminal behavior as well as behavior during incarceration. Furthermore, of the sample surveyed, 67% were rearrested. Personality traits measured during incarceration were predictive of recidivism rates, above and beyond the effects of such criminological factors as age and number of prior offenses. CONCLUSIONS: The results support the view that juvenile delinquents are a heterogeneous population in terms of personality features. These traits have discriminant and predictive validity. Adding personality measures to the assessment of delinquents may further our understanding of how personality influences criminal activity and future recidivism. We may be able to use this understanding to target specific domains of functioning to develop more effective intervention strategies.

Posttraumatic stress disorder among female juvenile offenders.

OBJECTIVE: While there is a growing body of evidence that psychopathology is common among incarcerated boys, relatively little is known about the prevalence and manifestations of mental health problems among incarcerated girls. This study examines the incidence of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in a sample of 96 adolescent female offenders and its relation to socioemotional adjustment. METHOD: Self-report questionnaires were used to tap socioemotional adjustment, and a semistructured interview was conducted to determine PTSD symptomatology. RESULTS: The results indicate that the rate of PTSD among incarcerated female delinquents not only is higher than that in the general population but surpasses the incidence of PTSD among incarcerated male delinquents. In addition, those who suffer from PTSD also tend to exhibit higher levels of distress and lower levels of self-restraint. CONCLUSIONS: These findings provide a starting point for more detailed investigations of the relations between trauma, psychopathology, and violence and suggest that the study of trauma may offer a new way of looking at links between victim and perpetrator.

Juvenile justice, delinquency, and psychiatry.

Juvenile delinquency is a serious problem in the United States, and is likely to remain so for many years to come. Because delinquency often is accompanied by high rates of coincidental and causal comorbidities, effective treatment programs for CD youths must use multimodal approaches tailored to each youth's particular set of psychopathologies. Child psychiatrists are uniquely qualified to provide assistance and leadership in the treatment of delinquent youths, as their problems are best captured by a developmental psychopathology model. Knowledge regarding the epidemiology of CD, and of the risk factors associated with it, is excellent, although a thorough understanding of resilience and treatment is still developing. Successful involvement in the treatment of delinquent youth requires that psychiatrists maintain a diverse set of skills, a high level of flexibility in treatment approaches, and a special awareness of the legal parameters governing the rehabilitation of these youngsters.