Search

Objective: The current study explored the prevalence and comorbidity of major internalizing and externalizing psychiatric disorders in a sample of female detainees participating in drug treatment programs in the nation's largest single-site jail, the Cook County (Chicago) Department of Corrections., Methods: A total of 253 women participated in a Needs Inventory. The study incorporated an extensive combination of measures, which captured the women's demographic characteristics and psychological problems as well as their substance use and drug treatment histories and their criminal thinking tendencies. For the purpose of analyses, women were combined into 3 groups: women with substance use problems but no comorbid psychiatric disorders, women with 1 comorbid psychiatric disorder (either internalizing or externalizing), and women with both internalizing and externalizing disorders., Results: More than 3/4 of the women were comorbid for another psychiatric (an internalizing or externalizing) disorder. Comorbid disorders were related to lower self-esteem, greater drug use severity, and higher levels of criminal thinking. For example, measures of reported histories of criminal activities and trauma exposure increased with comorbidity. The most critical variables in differentiating between female detainees with no and both internalizing and externalizing disorders were criminal thinking and exposure to trauma., Conclusions: The women in the present investigation and other female detainees in drug treatment programs require interventions that focus on both criminal and psychiatric recidivism. These interventions are most effectively delivered in a person-focused recovery framework that provides integrated modules of services. (PsycINFO Database Record, ((c) 2015 APA, all rights reserved).)

This study assessed the correlates of self-control and police contact in a sample of Chicago public high school students. The investigation examined the effects of parental attachment/identification, family structure, and peer association on self-control and the effects of parental attachment/identification, family structure, peer association, and self-control on police contact. Differences between African American and Latino youth on the predictors of the two dependent measures were tested in separate regression models. Weak parental attachment/identification and gang affiliation (peer association) predicted low self-control among all students. Among African American youth, only weak maternal attachment/identification predicted low self-control; both weak maternal attachment/identification and gang affiliation predicted low self-control among Latino youth. Gang affiliation predicted police stops (delinquency) among African Americans but not among Latinos. However, both African American and Latino students with lower self-control were more likely to be stopped by the police than those with higher self-control.