Levels of psychopathy and its correlates: a study of incarcerated youths in three states.

We report the results of a study on psychopathy and its correlates among 203 youths incarcerated in residential commitment programs in Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Delaware. Latent class analysis of the psychopathy data identified three classes of youths: low psychopathy, moderate psychopathy, and high psychopathy. Significant differences were found among the three groups in regard to their criminal thinking, delinquency, experience of stressful events, family relationships, and drug use. Conduct disordered, psychopathic youths were the most troubled among the youths studied.

Program use of effective drug abuse treatment practices for juvenile offenders.

This study examined the extent to which organizational context predicted use of consensus-based elements of effective substance abuse treatment practices with juvenile offenders. Participants were either directors of substance abuse treatment programs located in residential facilities (institutional sample) or directors of community-based treatment agencies providing services to adolescents in their home communities (community sample). The two settings differed significantly in the number and types of effective practices they were using. Community programs were more likely to have staff qualified to deliver substance abuse treatment, involve families in treatment, and assess their treatment outcomes. In contrast, institutional programs were more likely to provide comprehensive services. Resources dedicated to training, internal support for new programming, and network connectedness with non-criminal-justice facilities were associated with greater use of effective practices. These findings highlight the importance of establishing corrections-community partnerships designed to promote continuity of care for juvenile offenders.

Post-treatment outcomes among adjudicated adolescent males and females in modified therapeutic community treatment.

Identifying effective targeted interventions for substance using delinquent populations has remained an important objective for researchers and clinicians alike. To this end, the current study examines the client characteristics and post-treatment outcomes among youths admitted to Recovery House (RH), an innovative program that traverses the separation of juvenile justice and treatment. Data for the current analyses derive from a National Institute on Drug Abuse-funded 5-year post-treatment outcome study (NIDA #P50-DA-0770) of N = 938 adolescent clients admitted to therapeutic community (TC) programs in the United States and Canada during the period April 1992 to April 1994. Note the year The subsample of N = 200 males and N = 82 females from the two RH facilities is the focus of the current study. The 5-year follow-up sample contained 57.9% or N = 70 of the original sample of RH males and 62.2% or N = 51 or the original RH females. Chi-square statistics, one-way analysis of variance, and the Wilcoxon Signed Rank test was used to examine pretreatment, admissions, and outcome variables and to assess within person differences pre- to post-treatment. The profile of the adolescents at admission to Recovery House reveals that the youth were primarily involved with marijuana, and secondarily with alcohol, prior to treatment. The sample yielded multiple psychiatric disorders, the single most prevalent diagnosis being Conduct Disorder They also revealed extensive involvement in criminal activity (e.g., drug sales, violent crimes, and property crimes). Post-treatment drug use other than marijuana and alcohol was infrequent and there were reductions in the actual percent reporting involvement in most categories of criminal involvement. Gender analyses revealed that even though females were less likely to complete treatment, their post-treatment outcomes were better; proportionately fewer females compared with males were involved with marijuana use and with almost all categories of crime. In general, the findings suggest that programs such as RH can be successful in addressing the critical problem of youth substance use and criminal activity.

Posttreatment victimization and violence among adolescents following residential drug treatment.

This article examines the relationships among experiences of childhood abuse, psychiatric disorders, self-reported victimization, and violent behavior, with a focus on gender differences. Data were obtained from treatment entry and 5-year post-treatment interviews of 446 adolescent clients in therapeutic community (TC) drug treatment programs throughout the United States and Canada. Fifty-eight percent of the sample indicated that they engaged in serious violent behaviors (e.g., beatings, threatening or using weapons against other people, or violent crimes such as assaults, rapes, murders) in the 5 years following their separation from TC treatment. Multivariate logistic regression analyses revealed that victimization in the posttreatment period was the most significant factor associated with violent behavior, and pretreatment childhood abuse experiences and psychiatric disorders were not significantly related to the odds of violent behavior. There were significant gender differences in self-reported victimization and violent behavior. The findings suggest that violence in young adulthood for males is related to increasing involvement in violent lifestyles that include drug trafficking, while violence among females is associated with the social and psychological consequences of drug involvement and victimization. High rates of violent involvement and victimization among former adolescent clients suggests the utility of incorporating interventions such as safety-oriented strategies for females or interventions that address involvement in the drug use lifestyles (i.e., use and dealing) for both males and females into residential treatment to reduce the likelihood of future violence.