[Girls detained under civil and criminal law in juvenile detention centres; psychiatric disorders, trauma and psychosocial problems]. / Civiel- en strafrechtelijk geplaatste meisjes in justitiële jeugdinrichtingen; psychiatrische stoornissen, traumatisering en psychosociale problemen.

BACKGROUND: As from 2008, juveniles sentenced under civil law and juveniles sentenced under criminal law can no longer be assigned to the same juvenile detention centres. The reasoning runs as follows: the centres are unlikely to provide adequate treatment for the 'civil' group, and the 'criminal' group may exert a negative influence on the 'civil' group. Hitherto, there has been no research into the question of whether the problems and treatment requirements of girls in the two categories call for detention in the same detention centres or in different ones. AIM: The aim of this study is to investigate differences between the two groups of girls with regard to offence history, sociodemographic characteristics, contact with the social services, psychiatric disorders and trauma. METHOD: Investigation of a representative sample of 211 female minors in three juvenile detention centres using standard instruments. results 82% of the girls were detained under civil law, 18% under criminal law. There were strong similarities between the groups. However, the 'criminal' group more often had a violent history of delinquency and a non-Dutch background, whereas the 'civil' group more often had a background of residential placements, oppositional-defiant disorder, suicidality and self-harm. CONCLUSIONS: Girls detained under civil and under criminal law differed in characteristics such as criminal record, but there were striking similarities in the girls' behavioural problems and psychiatric disorders. It is argued that assignment to a particular type of detention centre should depend on treatment requirements rather than on measures imposed by civil or criminal law.

Delinquent development in Dutch childhood arrestees: developmental trajectories, risk factors and co-morbidity with adverse outcomes during adolescence.

Heterogeneity of re-offending patterns was studied in a group of 287 male early onset offenders who were first arrested before age 12. By combining data on the frequency and severity of offending as registered by the police over a 5-year follow-up period, three delinquent trajectories were identified; low, escalating, and high level re-offenders. Predicting group membership by individual and environmental characteristics known to the police at the time of the first arrest proved difficult. Compared to low level re-offenders, escalators were older and more often came from disadvantaged neighborhoods. High level re-offenders were also older at onset, more often had a non-Western ethnic background, and initially committed more vandalism. Furthermore, at the first police encounter, the police reacted more severely towards those who later became high level re-offenders. Finally, high and escalating re-offenders more often had other adverse outcomes, such as criminal victimization and Child Welfare Agency involvement.

[Filicide; psychiatric disorders in parents who murder their children--a literature review]. / Filicide; psychiatrische aspecten van kinderdoding door ouders - een literatuuroverzicht.

BACKGROUND: In the Netherlands between 1992 and 2001 there were 70 reported cases of child murder by parents, the total number of victims being 86. The crime of filicide is rare but has enormous impact on society. It is not known whether there is a relation between filicide and psychiatric disorders. AIM: To gain insight into the proportion and type of psychiatric disorders in perpetrators of filicide. method Literature search by means of PubMed, Embase Psychiatry and PsychInfo on the basis of the search terms filicide, neonaticide, infanticide, gender, psychiatric disorder. results Perpetrators of filicide were found to have many types of psychiatric disorders. The most frequent types of diagnostic categories were affective disorders with or without psychotic features. The second most frequent type was schizophrenia. There was a considerable overlap between these disorders, personality disorders and symptoms of drug-dependence. Often perpetrators were also found to have lower-than-average intelligence. CONCLUSION: A psychiatric disorder in one or both parents constitutes a major risk factor for child murder by parents. The identification of other risk factors and their possible interrelatedness is important for our understanding of these criminal acts, for the detection of warning signs and for the development of preventive strategies.