Search

Psychopathic traits and a history of traumatic brain injury (TBI) are common among imprisoned individuals. Although previous research has examined correlates of TBI among juvenile offenders, little research has explored the relationship between psychopathic traits and TBI among this population. Study objectives included: (1) examine the association between the history of a TBI and psychopathic traits among juvenile offenders and (2) determine if the history of a TBI predicts the manifestation of different psychopathic factors among juvenile offenders. Cross-sectional data from the Multidimensional Youth Residential Inventory consisted of 226 juvenile offenders. Bivariate and multivariate analyses were conducted. Results of linear regression analyses showed that history of a TBI significantly predicted callous unemotional and impulsive irresponsible traits. Clinical implications suggest early intervention is needed to treat the potential long-term effects of TBIs and the development of psychopathic traits. Recommendations for further research are discussed.

A long tradition of theoretical and empirical work has described different variants (or subtypes) of psychopathy, in an attempt to delineate similarities and differences among constellations of psychopathic traits. Research in this area has the potential to increase our understanding of the etiology of different psychopathy variants, their associated risk, and protective factors, as well as to inform the development of tailored interventions. Drawing on data from a large, representative sample of referred boys incarcerated in the United States (N = 629; Mage = 15.49 years, SD = 1.23), the current study adopted a person-centered approach to identify variants of incarcerated youth based on scores on the 8 Psychopathic Personality Inventory-Short Form (PPI-SF) subscales. Latent profile analysis results identified 5 variants of youth: a high-psychopathy variant, a variant with moderate psychopathy scores, and 3 variants with distinct elevations on some PPI-SF subscales. Over one third of the participants had substantially high levels of psychopathic traits, and high levels of psychopathy were associated with a severe history of delinquency. Latent profile analysis findings also supported traditional and contemporary perspectives on psychopathy variants according to which different constellations of psychopathic traits are associated with different degrees of delinquent behavior, internalizing symptoms, substance use, and victimization. Finally, it appears that, individually, none of the trait domains assessed by the PPI-SF can explain differences across variants, and that it is the co-occurrence of all of the features that characterizes the most severe form of psychopathy. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).

Background: Little is known regarding trends in cannabis use among justice-involved youth. We hypothesize that cannabis use will be higher over time among justice-involved youth who, on average, are more likely to be exposed to and seek out cannabis., Objectives: The present study compares trends in cannabis use among justice-involved youth (past year) with youth in the general population age 12-17 who have not been arrested in the past year., Methods: Public-use data as part of the 2002-2017 National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH), which does not include state-level identifiers, was used. Males constitute 51% of the total sample. Among justice-involved youth, 66.4% were males. We employed logistic regression analyses with survey year as an independent variable and past-year cannabis use as the dependent variable. A series of logistic regressions examined the association between cannabis use and psychosocial and behavioral factors., Results: The prevalence of past-year cannabis use among justice-involved youth (3.09% of the sample) steadily increased from 54% in 2002 to 58% in 2017 (AOR = 1.018, 95% CI = 1.004-1.034), while the concurrent prevalence of cannabis use among youth with no past year arrests decreased from a high of 14% in 2002 to 12% in 2017 (AOR = 0.993, 95% CI = 0.990-0.997)., Conclusion: Study findings suggest that cannabis use is increasing among justice-involved youth.

Since Anderson's now classic, Code of the Street: Decency, Violence, and the Moral Life of the Inner City , an increasing number of researchers have found a significant association between the code of the street and antisocial behavior. Less researched, however, is the relationship between the code of the street and cognate psychological factors. Building on the hypothesis that the code of the street is simply a reflection of elements of the population who exhibit antisocial traits, our aim in this study is to empirically test whether the observed association between the code of the street and antisocial behavior can withstand psychological confounds among a sample of institutionalized juvenile delinquents. Negative binomial regression models show that the code of the street remained a significant predictor of antisocial behavior despite the specification of psychopathy and temperamental traits and other controls. Moreover, as theorized, differential effects were found for African American delinquents compared to non-African American delinquents. We discuss theoretical and practical implications.

Suicide is the leading cause of death for incarcerated youth, and up to half of all juveniles in confinement experience suicidal ideation in addition to other psychopathology, including psychopathic personality features. Unfortunately, limited research has investigated the psychopathy-suicidality link among juvenile delinquents and using newer psychopathy measures. Based upon a statewide population of incarcerated juvenile offenders, we found that psychopathy was a significant risk factor for suicidal ideation and lifetime suicide attempts, but the latter relationship was attenuated by lifetime depression diagnosis. In addition, certain affective psychopathic features such as Stress Immunity conferred protection against suicidality, whereas behavioral and lifestyle components including Carefree Nonplanfulness, Blame Externalization, and Rebellious Nonconformity were positively linked to suicidal thoughts among the youth offenders. As these risk factors are routinely screened for in juvenile justice settings, this study's findings have considerable implications to applied practice and prevention among juvenile justice involved youth.

The Youth Psychopathic Traits Inventory-Short Form (YPI-S) is a convenient measure for assessing psychopathy in settings with constraints on resources. However, the YPI-S does not contain a means of detecting careless or random response styles. The present study describes the development and evaluation of an inconsistent responding scale for the YPI-S using five archival samples that vary in language (English, German, Italian, Dutch) and other participant characteristics (juvenile offenders, adolescent students). Inconsistency scores resulting from the new scale effectively distinguished genuine participant responses from randomly generated cases (area under the ROC curve [AUC] = .85-.90) and from cases in which 50% of original responses were replaced with random data (AUC = .75-.82). The associations between the YPI-S and theoretically relevant correlates were reduced among participants exceeding proposed cutoff scores for profile validity compared with associations among more consistent respondents.

Despite growing interest in psychopathic personality features in juvenile offenders, few studies have examined the relationship between childhood trauma and psychopathy. The present study utilized two datasets: 253 adolescents in a residential facility for juvenile offenders in Pennsylvania and 723 institutionalized delinquents in Missouri. Zero-order correlations and linear regression techniques were employed for boys and girls to examine the relationships between trauma, assessed using the Massachusetts Youth Screening Instrument Version 2 (MAYSI-2) Traumatic Experiences Scale and the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire (CTQ), and psychopathy as measured by the Youth Psychopathic Traits Inventory (YPI) and the Psychopathic Personality Inventory-Short Form (PPI-SF). Results indicate that psychopathy is significantly correlated with childhood trauma. For the Missouri data, trauma significantly predicted psychopathy scores for both boys and girls. These results suggest that nuanced understanding of traumatic history of these adolescents may not only be a pathway to psychopathy but also a critical part of their overall assessment and treatment plan.

Background: Trends in abstaining from substance use and delinquency among adolescent's ages 12-17 in the United States was examined., Methods: Data was derived from the National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH) involving non-Hispanic white, African American, and Hispanic respondents (n = 98,620) and spanning the years 2002-2014. Logistic regression was used to examine significance of trend year and correlates of low-risk and high-risk behavioral groups relative to abstaining., Results: Overall, the prevalence of abstaining was 47.56% between 2002 and 2014. Prevalence increased significantly among all adolescents from 44.85% in 2002 to 53.58% in 2014. Relative to abstainers nonabstaining youth were more likely to be male, and report lower household income, poorer grades, depression, and lower levels of parental affirmation and control., Conclusions: Findings indicate that there is a corresponding increase in abstaining mirroring the recent decreases found in adolescent drug use found in national surveys.

Recent interest among criminologists on the construct of temperament has been fueled by DeLisi and Vaughn's (2014) temperament-based theory of antisocial behavior. Their theory suggests that core self-regulation capacity and negative emotionality are the most salient temperament features for understanding the emergence and maintenance of antisocial and violent behavior, even among offending populations. The present study tests the relative effects of these temperamental features along with psychopathic traits and trauma in their association with violent and non-violent delinquency in a sample of 252 juvenile offenders. Results from a series of negative binomial regression models indicate that temperament was uniformly more strongly associated with violent and non-violent delinquency than psychopathic traits and childhood traumatic events. Exploratory classification models suggested that temperament and psychopathy possessed similar predictive capacity, but neither surpassed prior history of violence and delinquency as a predictor of future offending. Overall, findings are supportive of DeLisi and Vaughn's temperament-based theory and suggest temperament as conceptualized and measured in the present study may play an important role as a risk factor for violent and non-violent delinquency., (Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Purpose: Although it is well-established that juvenile offenders are at an elevated risk for depression and that, within this group, females have the highest risk, little is known regarding the trends in the prevalence of depression among juvenile offenders in the United States. In the present study, we systematically examine secular trends in major depressive episodes (MDE) and their correlates among male and female juvenile offenders and non-offenders in the United States., Methods: Data were collected between 2005 and 2014 as part of the National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH). The NSDUH uses multistage area probability sampling methods to select a representative sample of the civilian, non-institutionalized population in the United States. Participants included 171,118 youth aged 12-17 (159,449 non-offenders and 11,669 offenders). The primary variable of interest was self-reported past year MDE. Logistic regression assessed whether sociodemographic factors and psychosocial and behavioral correlates affected the risk of MDE., Results: Between 2005 and 2014, the prevalence of MDE among female youth increased for both offender and non-offender groups: from 24.4% to 33.0% for the offenders and from 12.4% to 16.7% for the non-offenders. No significant trend changes were observed among male youth. In both male and female juvenile offenders, MDEs were associated with increased risk of illicit drug use (males OR=1.61, 95% CI=1.18-2.18; females OR=1.83, 95% CI=1.45-2.31). Additional correlates include alcohol use among male offenders (OR=1.36, 95% CI=1.01-1.83), and binge drinking in female offenders (OR=1.24, 95% CI=1.02-1.49)., Conclusions: The prevalence of past year major depressive episodes is increasing for female juvenile offenders, highlighting a need for improved efforts to target these populations for prevention and treatment., (Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Background: There is a view that young people presenting with an animal cruelty and firesetting combination represent a uniquely risky group, but prior work has relied on samples with insufficient power., Research Question: What is the prevalence of the co-occurrence of animal cruelty and firesetting behaviour among young delinquents? What other features correlate with this?, Methods: We measured the prevalence of animal cruelty and firesetting among 292,649 juvenile offenders and used rare events logistic regression to examine demographic, criminal, mental health and family histories as correlates., Results: The prevalence of animal cruelty was 0.59%, accounting for 1732 young people, and of firesetting 1.56% (n = 4553). The co-occurrence of these behaviours was rare: 0.17% (n = 498), but approximately twice that expected by chance based on the prevalence of each behaviour individually (0.59% × 1.56% = 0.009%). Rates were higher in males, older youths and Whites. Among historical variables, criminal history was the strongest correlate, followed by mental health problems, then familial and individual indicators., Conclusions: As only male gender and being a victim of sexual abuse increased the odds of evidencing both animal cruelty and firesetting behaviour substantially above the odds for each behaviour individually, there thus appears to be little that is unique to the co-occurrence. Our findings suggest that sensitivity to the occurrence of each is the best way forward, with rather familiar assessments and interventions offering some hope of reducing these seriously damaging behaviours. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., (Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.)

Objective: Juvenile offenders face increased liability for psychiatric disorders and greater psychopathology, but little is known about the psychiatric status of former juvenile delinquents as adults., Method: Drawing on data from Wave 1 and Wave 2 of the NESARC, logistic regression models examine correlates of psychiatric disorders in a large nationally representative sample of former juvenile detainees in adulthood (n=1177) compared to adults who did not have a history of juvenile offending (n=33,193). Further, we explored the psychosocial correlates associated with the increased likelihood of psychiatric disorders among former juvenile detainees., Results: Nearly half of former juvenile detainees met criteria for one or more psychiatric disorders in the past twelve months and approximately two-thirds meet criteria for any lifetime personality disorder. Compared to the general population, former juvenile detainees not only denote greater psychiatric comorbidity across a range of affective, personality, and substance use disorders but are also more likely to report childhood adversity., Conclusions: Former juvenile detainees experience significantly greater and more varied psychiatric problems across adulthood., (Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

The association between psychopathy and crime is established, but the specific components of the personality disorders that most contribute to crime are largely unknown. Drawing on data from 723 confined delinquents in Missouri, the present study delved into the eight subscales of the Psychopathic Personality Inventory-Short Form to empirically assess the specific aspects of the disorder that are most responsible for explaining variation in career delinquency. Blame externalization emerged as the strongest predictor of career delinquency in ordinary least squares regression, logistic regression, and t-test models. Fearlessness and carefree nonplanfulness were also significant in all models. Other features of psychopathy, such as stress immunity, social potency, and coldheartedness were weakly and inconsistently predictive of career delinquency. Implications of these findings for the study of psychopathy and delinquent careers are discussed in this article., (© The Author(s) 2013.)

Background: There is some evidence that antisocial individuals, including young delinquents, are significantly more likely than people in the general population to incur a traumatic brain injury (TBI). Extant studies are hampered by methodological limitations, such as small sample sizes, lack of control for confounding effects, and use of single sites and may lack representativeness., Hypothesis: The hypothesis for this study is that young offenders with a history of TBI will not only be at higher risk of impulsivity and negative emotionality than their non-injured peers but also that those with TBI will have had more previous victimisation experiences., Methods: Data from two sites (Philadelphia, PA and Phoenix, AZ) in a substantial longitudinal, prospective study - the Pathways to Desistance Study - were used to compare young people (average age 16 years) who reported TBI with those who did not. Independent variables were behavioural, criminogenic and psychosocial measures., Results: Male youths were about twice as likely as young females to report TBI. Such injury was associated with higher impulsivity and negative emotion ratings, even after allowing for potentially confounding factors, including sex. In addition, TBI was independently associated with self-reported experience of victimisation., Conclusions/implications: This extends the generalisability of earlier suggestions of a relationship between TBI and offending, and various factors thought likely to mediate the relationship. The implications are, thus, that it is likely to be of practical value to screen young people who get into the criminal justice system for a history of TBI, and thus to allow for more specific tailoring of interventions to reduce the range of associated problems, including likely reoffending., (Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.)

Given the high prevalence of mental health and substance use disorders in the juvenile justice system and the emphasis on efficient screening and referrals, the current study sought to further validate the use of the Massachusetts Youth Screening Instrument version 2 (MAYSI-2). Using data from institutionalized delinquents (N=836) committed to the California Youth Authority, finite mixture modeling was employed to identify distinct latent classes based on MAYSI-2 scale scores. Identified classes were then compared across a range of covariates, including prior offenses, official records of misconduct, and multiple measures of mental health and psychological well-being. Findings revealed a three-class, gradient-based structure: low distress (n=380), moderate distress (n=327), and high distress (n=129). Overall, the MAYSI-2 identified juvenile offenders with mental health and substance use issues, but it did not differentiate youths with respect to offending patterns., (Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.)

The cycle of violence thesis posits that early exposure to maltreatment increases the likelihood of later maladaptive and antisocial behaviors. Childhood sexual abuse (CSA) specifically has been shown to increase the likelihood of sexual offending, although less is known about its linkages to other forms of crime. Based on data from 2,520 incarcerated male juvenile offenders from a large southern state, hierarchical logistic regression models suggested that CSA increased the likelihood of later sexual offending nearly sixfold (467% increase). However, CSA was associated with an 83% reduced likelihood of homicide offending and 68% reduced likelihood of serious person/property offending. These findings suggest further support for the cycle of violence where CSA promotes sexual offending but novel findings regarding the linkages between CSA and other forms of crime.

Research on juvenile offenders has largely treated this population as a homogeneous group. However, recent findings suggest that this at-risk population may be considerably more heterogeneous than previously believed. This study compared mixture regression analyses with standard regression techniques in an effort to explain how known factors such as distress, trauma, and personality are associated with drug abuse among juvenile offenders. Researchers recruited 728 juvenile offenders from Missouri juvenile correctional facilities for participation in this study. Researchers investigated past-year substance use in relation to the following variables: demographic characteristics (gender, ethnicity, age, familial use of public assistance), antisocial behavior, and mental illness symptoms (psychopathic traits, psychiatric distress, and prior trauma). Results indicated that standard and mixed regression approaches identified significant variables related to past-year substance use among this population; however, the mixture regression methods provided greater specificity in results. Mixture regression analytic methods may help policy makers and practitioners better understand and intervene with the substance-related subgroups of juvenile offenders.

Empathy is considered a key construct in the empirical study of high-risk adolescent and young adult delinquency, crime, and violence. This study examined the psychometric properties and criterion-related validity of a Spanish adaptation of the Basic Empathy Scale (BES), which is an important measure designed to capture both affective and cognitive empathy that has been validated in multiple languages but not in Spanish. The study's sample consisted of 208 high-risk and gang-involved adolescents and young adults in the Greater San Salvador Metropolitan Area. The original BES was reduced from its 20-item design to a more culturally appropriate 7-item design. The results of the confirmatory factor analysis and criterion-related validity analysis indicate that the adapted BES is a valid and reliable multidimensional measure of empathy for high-risk Salvadoran adolescents and young adults. Consistent with previous findings, females reported lower levels of empathy than males and delinquent/violent respondents reported lower levels of empathy than their nonoffender counterparts.

Objective: To examine the direct and mediated relationships between religious coping, spirituality, social developmental factors, and violence among high-risk and gang-involved youth in a high-crime, Latin American country., Methods: Using a community sample of 290 high-risk and gang-involved youth in San Salvador, El Salvador, structural equation modeling was employed to examine the relationships between religious coping, spirituality, social developmental factors (e.g., antisocial bond and antisocial beliefs), and violence., Results: Religious coping (β = - 0.14, P < 0.05) and spirituality (β = - 0.20, P < 0.01) were both significantly associated with antisocial bond. Antisocial bond, in turn, was directly associated with violence (β = 0.70, P < 0.001) and was associated with antisocial beliefs (β = 0.54, P < 0.001); however, the path from antisocial beliefs to violence was not statistically significant. No direct paths were identified from religiosity and spirituality to violence. The goodness-of-fit statistics (root mean square error of approximation, 0.034; comparative fit index, 0.974; and Tucker-Lewis index, 0.966) suggest that the final model had acceptable fit., Conclusions: This study is among the first to shed light on the relationship between religiosity, spirituality, and youth violence in the Latin American context. Elevated levels of religious coping and spirituality are associated with less antisocial bonding, which, in turn, is associated with lower levels of violent behavior among high-risk and gang-involved Salvadoran youth. Study findings suggest that religious coping and spirituality are indirectly protective for youth violence among this high-risk population.

Relatively little is known in terms of the relationship between religiosity profiles and adolescents' involvement in substance use, violence, and delinquency. Using a diverse sample of 17,705 (49 % female) adolescents from the 2008 National Survey on Drug Use and Health, latent profile analysis and multinomial regression are employed to examine the relationships between latent religiosity classes and substance use, violence, and delinquency. Results revealed a five class solution. Classes were identified as religiously disengaged (10.76 %), religiously infrequent (23.59 %), privately religious (6.55 %), religious regulars (40.85 %), and religiously devoted (18.25 %). Membership in the religiously devoted class was associated with the decreased likelihood of participation in a variety of substance use behaviors as well as decreases in the likelihood of fighting and theft. To a lesser extent, membership in the religious regulars class was also associated with the decreased likelihood of substance use and fighting. However, membership in the religiously infrequent and privately religious classes was only associated with the decreased likelihood of marijuana use. Findings suggest that private religiosity alone does not serve to buffer youth effectively against involvement in problem behavior, but rather that it is the combination of intrinsic and extrinsic adolescent religiosity factors that is associated with participation in fewer problem behaviors.

This study investigated various theoretically relevant correlates of a short form of the Psychopathic Personality Inventory (PPI; Lilienfeld & Andrews, 1996) using archival data from large undergraduate, foster care, and juvenile offender samples. External correlates of the 2 primary scales (PPI-I and PPI-II) and the Coldheartedness subscale were for the most part consistent with prior findings. Analyses for an alternate factor model in which the Fearlessness subscale loaded onto PPI-II (rather than PPI-I) resulted in relatively few substantial changes to the pattern of correlations with criterion measures, but a third factor that included the Coldheartedness and Carefree Nonplanfulness subscales functioned differently than Coldheartedness alone in these data.

There is a burgeoning line of criminological research examining the genetic underpinnings to a wide array of antisocial phenotypes. From this perspective, genes are typically viewed as risk factors that increase the odds of various maladaptive behaviors. However, genes can also have protective effects that insulate against the deleterious effects of environmental pathogens. The authors use this logic as a springboard to examine whether four different genes protect against victimization in a sample of youths determined to be at risk for being victimized. Analysis of data drawn from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health) revealed that certain genetic polymorphisms protected adolescents from victimization. The authors conclude by discussing the complex ways in which genes and the environment can promote resiliency to victimization.

Several recent studies have examined the taxometric status of psychopathic and antisocial traits in adult samples, almost all of which have supported a dimensional model. The three studies examining whether psychopathic traits among youths are best conceptualized as a discrete latent class (or taxon) or as a dimensional construct, however, have provided conflicting results. In a sample of 723 delinquent youths who completed two self-report measures of psychopathic traits, results across taxometric procedures provided uniform support for a dimensional model. Additionally, analyses comparing putative dichotomous and dimensional classification models in terms of predicting relevant criterion measures (e.g., delinquent behavior, substance abuse, and hostility) indicated superior validity for the dimensional model. Implications for research, policy, and practice are reviewed.

Although a great deal of empirical research has examined the association between psychopathic personality traits and antisocial phenotypes, comparatively less empirical research has examined the factors that might contribute to the development of psychopathy. In an attempt to shed some light on this gap in the literature, the current study explored the biosocial correlates to adolescent psychopathy in a sample of youths. Analysis of data drawn from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development Study of Early Child Care revealed that prenatal exposure to cigarette smoke was associated with higher scores on the Youth Psychopathic Traits Inventory. Interestingly, prenatal exposure to cigarette smoke only was related to psychopathy for youths who were raised in a two-parent household; there was not association for youths who were raised in a single-parent household. Reasons for this finding are provided and avenues for future research are discussed.

Gottfredson and Hirschi's A General Theory of Crime, Moffitt's developmental taxonomy theory, and Caspi et al.'s Gene x Environment study are three of the most influential pieces of contemporary criminological scholarship. Even so, there has been little attempt to integrate and empirically assess these three perspectives simultaneously. This article addresses this gap in the literature by analyzing phenotypic and genotypic data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health). The results revealed that all three perspectives have considerable empirical support, where neuropsychological deficits interact with the MAOA genotype to predict adolescent delinquency and levels of self-control for White males. The theoretical implications of the findings are noted.

Purpose: Few studies have simultaneously investigated psychopathic traits in relation to assorted dimensions of a delinquent career. The current study examined the role that psychopathy might play in facilitating research on the small subset of youth at risk for persistent antisocial behavior., Method: This study examined psychopathic personality scores using the Antisocial Process Screening Device (APSD) and the Psychopathic Personality Inventory-Short Version (PPI-SV) in a statewide population of 723 juvenile offenders., Results: Psychopathy scores revealed a linear score-response such that higher psychopathy scores were associated with increases in general delinquency (including violent and non-violent forms), hostile aggression, and three forms of early onset delinquency, including offending, police contact, and juvenile court referral. Moreover, negative binomial regression, hierarchical linear regression, and logistic regression models revealed that psychopathy factors possessed utility in predicting all dimensions of the delinquent career net the effects of demographic and available risk factors., Conclusion: Psychopathy should be fully incorporated into criminological investigations of delinquent and criminal careers.

Desistance from criminal offending has become the source of a considerable amount of research attention. Much of this literature has examined how environmental factors, such as marriage, employment, and delinquent peers contribute to the desistance process. A relatively unexplored possibility, however, is that desistance from criminal behavior is partially due to genetic factors. To test this possibility, data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health) were used to examine the effects that five different genetic polymorphisms (DAT1, DRD2, DRD4, 5HTT, and MAOA) have on desistance from delinquent involvement. Three broad findings emerged. First, marriage significantly increased desistance. Second, some of the genetic polymorphisms had significant independent effects on desistance. Third, for males, the genetic polymorphisms interacted with marital status to predict variation in desistance. The findings underscore the importance of using a biosocial perspective to examine factors related to criminal desistance.

Background: Little is known about the institutional behaviour of incarcerated sex offenders., Aim: To study the relationships between juvenile sex offending, thought psychopathology and institutional misconduct., Method: We applied negative binomial regression and Area Under Curve Receiver Operating Characteristic (AUC-ROC) analyses to self-report and records data from institutionalised delinquents (N = 813) committed to the California Youth Authority to explore the links between sex offending and institutional misconduct, controlling for offender demographics, institution, index offence, and self-reported and official criminal history., Results: Juvenile sex offending was associated with six forms of institutional misconduct (sexual, general and total misconduct as reviewed by parole board) over 12 and 24 months prior to rating. Two measures of thought psychopathology, which were related to psychosis-like thought, were significantly associated with juvenile sex offender status. These constructs did not, however, mediate the independent predictive effects of adolescent sex offending on institutional misconduct., Conclusion: Interventions to help incarcerated young offenders are likely to be particularly important for those with a sex offending history as they are otherwise likely to persist with antisocial behaviours of all kinds within and beyond the institution. Attention to their thought processes may be particularly useful., (Copyright (c) 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.)

Research on self-control and related constructs is central to individual-level explanations of antisocial behavior. However, less research attention has been paid to the psychopathological underpinnings of self-control. The current study explores relationships between self-control and psychiatric symptoms, head injury, trauma history, substance use, guiltlessness and narcissistic traits in a statewide population of juvenile offenders. Results support the importance of these variables, in particular narcissistic traits, in better explicating theories of self-control. Implications for research on the psychopathological underpinnings of self-control are highlighted., (Copyright (c) 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.)

Low future orientation, low empathy, educational difficulty, school expulsion, delinquent peers, gang membership, and low social support were found to be significant risk factors for violence and delinquency among a sample (N = 174) of high risk youth and youth gang members in San Salvador, El Salvador. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The study of delinquent peers has remained at the forefront of much criminological research and theorizing. One issue of particular importance involves the factors related to why people associate with and maintain a sustained involvement with delinquent peers. Although efforts have been made to address these questions, relatively little attempt has been made to understand these relationships from a biosocial perspective. This gap in the literature is addressed in an analysis of twins from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health). The results of the univariate behavioral genetic models reveal that genetic factors account for between 58% and 74% of the variance in the association with delinquent peers, with the remaining variance attributable to environmental factors. Bivariate Cholesky decomposition models reveal that genetic factors account for 58% of the variance in the stability in delinquent peers. The shared environment explains 34% of the variance in stability, and the remaining 8% is attributable to the nonshared environment. The importance of a biosocial approach in criminological research is discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A body of empirical research has revealed that neuropsychological functioning is one of the most consistent predictors of antisocial behavior. It is somewhat surprising however that criminological research has been slow to examine the different factors that are implicated in the development of neuropsychological deficits. This study addresses this gap in the literature by examining the effects that a number of social and biological variables have on neuropsychological functioning. Analysis of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health) indicates that postnatal exposure to cigarette smoke, duration of breastfeeding, maternal involvement, and household income predicts variation in adolescent and adulthood levels of neuropsychological functioning. Implications of the findings are noted and discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Objective: The present study identifies and summarizes treatment effects for children and adolescent conduct problems based on accrued meta-analytic studies. Method: Systematic search and coding procedures were used to summarize studies from 1980 to 2007. Results: A total of 26 meta-analytic reviews composed of nearly 2,000 studies revealed substantial variation in effect sizes. The majority (45%) of effect sizes was small to medium in magnitude (d < .36). In terms of the distribution of effect sizes (n = 125), the mean is d = 0.43 (SD = 0.32). Conclusion: Although there is considerable variation in effect sizes, the results seem to demonstrate evidence for equifinality. Furthermore, these effects are sturdy across a number of interrelated outcomes. Practitioners who work with children and adolescents should be aware of the range of evidence-based treatments available for conduct problems. Limitations of taking stock of treatment outcome literature via meta-analyses are highlighted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Behavioral genetic research has revealed that biogenic factors play a role in the development of antisocial behaviors. Much of this research has also explicated the way in which the environment and genes may combine to create different phenotypes. The authors draw heavily from this literature and use data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health to examine genetic and environmental effects on adolescent delinquent involvement. The results of the multivariate models reveal that genetic factors have a direct effect on youthful misconduct. Most important, however, is that genetic factors interact with delinquent peers and with low self-control to predict variation in delinquency. Analysis of the Add Health data also provide evidence suggesting that there is a shared genetic pathway to delinquent involvement, to antisocial peer group formation, and to the development of low self-control. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Revisiting Gottfredson and Hirschi's critiques of criminal career research, the current study views low self-control as being analogous to criminal propensity and examines its predictive validity of career criminality among 723 incarcerated delinquent youths. Four key findings emerged. Compared to noncareer offenders, career criminals had significantly lower levels of self-control. Second, youths scoring one standard deviation above the mean on the Self-Control Scale had an odds ratio of 5.36 of becoming a career criminal. Third, self-control predicted career criminal membership with receiver operator characteristic-area under the curve sensitivity accuracies between 74% and 87%, suggesting that self-control is a potentially useful screening device for chronic criminality. Fourth, low self-control was overwhelmingly the strongest predictor of career criminality and far exceeded the impact of age, race, ethnicity, gender, socioeconomic status, mental illness, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder diagnosis, and trauma experience. Further integration between self-control and criminal career research is urged. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The incarceration of young people is a growing national problem. Key correlates of incarceration among American youth include mental health problems, substance use, and delinquency. The present study uses a statewide sample of incarcerated youth to examine racial differences in African American and Caucasian juvenile offenders' out- comes related to mental health, substance use, and delinquency. The data indicate that relative to Caucasian offenders, African American offenders report lower levels of mental health problems and substance use but higher levels of delinquent behavior such as violence, weapon carrying, and gang fighting. The data further reveal that African American offenders are more likely than Caucasian offenders to be victims of violence and to experience traumatic events such as witnessing injury and death. Recognition of these patterns may help to improve postrelease services by tailoring or adapting preexisting programs to patterns of risk factors and their relative magnitudes of effect. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examined the prevalence and patterns of illicit drug use among a state population of 723 incarcerated juvenile offenders. In addition to alcohol and marijuana, results indicated high rates of illicit substance use involving a wide range of substances including amphetamines, opiate drugs, prescription drugs, and solvents. Further, significant gender and ethnic differences were observed with regard to alcohol and drug related problems, suicidal ideation, and age of substance use initiation. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Objective: There is concern that changes in marijuana-related policy and public opinion may lead to increased access to marijuana among young people in the United States. However, little research has been conducted on changes in youth's perceptions of marijuana access, and studies have yet to systematically examine trends in perceived access across key sociodemographic and externalizing behavioral subgroups.Method: Using population-based data collected between 2002 and 2015 as part of the National Survey on Drug Use and Health, we examined trends in perceived marijuana access among non-Hispanic White, African American, and Hispanic adolescents (ages 12-17, n = 221,412). Following the trend analysis method outlined by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, we conducted logistic regression analyses to test for secular trends.Results: Between 2002 and 2015, we observed a 27% overall reduction in the relative proportion of adolescents ages 12-17-and a 42% reduction among those ages 12-14-reporting that it would be "very easy" to obtain marijuana. This pattern was uniformly observed among youth in all sociodemographic subgroups (i.e., across age, gender, race/ethnicity, household income) and among youth reporting involvement/no involvement in most measures of substance use (alcohol, marijuana) and delinquency (handgun carrying, attacks). However, perceived very easy access remained stable among youth reporting tobacco use and criminal justice system involvement.Conclusions: Despite the legalization of recreational and medical marijuana in some states, our findings suggest that, with the notable exception of adolescent tobacco users and juvenile offenders, perceptions that marijuana would be very easy to obtain are on the decline among American youth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]