The very first juvenile justice system was established in 1899 in our home state, Illinois. This juvenile justice system then lead to the establishment of the first child and adolescent psychiatry clinic in the year 1909, in Chicago, Illinois (May, Osmond, & Billick, 2014). Numerous research studies have been conducted on juvenile delinquents who obtain some sort of mental illness, focusing on different factors including; education, associated peers, transitioning into adulthood, consequences of their actions, life in containment facilities, future employment, criminogenic needs, intervention/treatment, etc. All around the world there is the epidemic of juveniles performing delinquent acts. Research has found that about 50% to 70% of juvenile delinquents have high rates of mental health issues, with an actual diagnosed disorder (Schubert, Mulvey, Hawes & Davis, 2018). Not only a diagnosed mental health disorder but a substance abuse disorder on top of that. In an international study, research showed that the majority of juveniles in the overall system indeed do suffer from a mental disorder. It was found that around 13,778 males and 2,972 females in the system reported a high statistic of having a mental disorder, where even over half of that reported a statistic of having a conduct disorder at 53% amongst males and females (Gaete, Labbé, Villar, Allende, Araya, & Valenzuela, 2018). The question and concern most of all is to figure out the reasoning and factors behind the acts to understand and work toward finding treatment programs and ways to decrease the epidemic worldwide.
It is important for a treatment program to be implemented into the juvenile system that focuses on the need and well-being of these underrepresented juveniles with mental health issues. There are so many more advantages than disadvantages to working toward bettering our youth rather than letting them go down the wrong paths and viewing them as lost hope for not only their futures, but society’s future as a whole. The youth is what makes up the future, so it is vital that we as the adult population work hard to improve and pave a helping, informational, caring and mentoring path for the mentally ill youth in our communities and all around the world.
Take education, an individual’s educational level helps society as a whole if the majority are educated and sufficient enough to contribute to their communities in positive and helpful ways rather than negative and criminal ways. Along with education, perhaps not every single individual with college degree level, but some level enough to where they are literate and functional members of society, implement more working individuals. The more working individuals, the more money and other beneficial flows there are to the communities and society all together. Any diagnosed mental health issue has been found to be a consequence and a risk factor that plays into unemployment for the individual (Schubert, Mulvey, Hawes & Davis, 2018). With working individuals, you cut the cost of taxpayers’ dollars that go towards just keeping the youth incarcerated. According to the Justice Policy Institute, the costs of juveniles costs different states in America on an average of $407.58 per juvenile a day and $148,767 per juvenile yearly. It has been found that taxpayers’ dollars also go towards lost earnings and tax revenue, estimating around $8 billion and $21 billion annually (What Youth Incarceration Costs Taxpayers). Instead, these dollars need to be going toward proven treatment programs that have statistically shown improvement and success within the juveniles themselves. Overall, mental health is a complex issue but plays a huge factor within the juvenile systems. Research shows that more than not of these juveniles do suffer from some sort of psychiatric impairment. With treatment programs that directly focus on mental health, they are undoubtedly working toward improving our society’s future one in-need juvenile at a time.
Literature Review
There are many treatment and intervention plans worldwide that are geared to helping juvenile delinquents in many different ways. One of the most known and profound treatment programs is evidence-based, “Multisystemic Therapy” (MST). MST is an intense therapy program that works on all different factors of a delinquent’s life that could potentially relate to their negative behaviors. This therapy pinpoints on prosocial activity and avoidance of association with other delinquent peers. There are several goals of MST; one being working toward facilitating familial support through communication and guided problem solving. This treatment specifically has proven to be successful amongst juvenile delinquents but there has been issues with implementing it as a standard program all around the world due to costs and the commitment needed on more intense levels (May, Osmond, & Billick, 2014).
Another treatment and intervention program called, “The Perry Preschool Project” (PPP), was established in the 1960’s, where it originated from the Perry Elementary School in a small city in Michigan right outside of Detroit (Conti, Heckman, & Pinto, 2016). This program was used to teach children prosocial values and provide the families with credentials from their communities during their child’s early years of formation (May, Osmond, & Billick, 2014). The intensity of this program was 12.5-15 hours a week for 30 weeks a year, in addition to 1.5 hours of home visits and 1 monthly parent-group meeting (Conti, Heckman, & Pinto, 2016). This program was found to show a significant reduction in future juvenile delinquent behaviors.
Along with treatment and intervention programs, there are therapy programs that do the same thing but are performed by trained therapists. “Dialectical Behavior Therapy” (DBT) is a therapy that takes on a cognitive-behavioral approach. This treatment therapy enhances its effectiveness with an arrangement of behavioral and emotional problems. With DBT, the strategies and teaching skills serve as an effective route to addressing the complex problems that the majority of juvenile offenders experience. Therefore, with the results of DBT, they are varied in terms of the effectiveness of the treatment itself (Banks & Gibbons, 2016).
A treatment called, “Scared Straight” is a unique treatment program within itself because it differs from most. This treatment attempts to do literally as it says, scare these juvenile delinquents from further committing delinquent behavior. How they do this is they expose the juveniles to the real, harsh world of prison and the inmates are involved as well. This treatment has been found to not be very successful when it comes to deterring the juveniles from further delinquent acts. They found that it actually does the complete opposite, and actually increases their likelihood to committing further delinquent acts in the future (May, Osmond, Billick, 2014). Although research has shown this attempt at treatment unsuccessful and ineffective, this type of program still remains popular to do. This program entails a rather quick response to juvenile crime rather than a prolonged or ineffective way of addressing these issues amongst juveniles (Royster, 2012).
“Functional Family Therapy” (FFT) is another therapy based program that is based off of a family behavioral intervention to help improve family functioning. With this therapy, you decrease the likelihood of juvenile delinquent behaviors. With implementing these family based skills into your child’s life, you are teaching them early on structure and valuable lessons and skills to follow down the right path rather than criminal behaviors for their futures (Guerra, & Williams, 1970). This program is less intensive, but studies have shown about an 18% reduction rate in recidivism for intervention in the juvenile justice system.
Aggression Replacement Training (ART) is a juvenile training program designed to help juveniles with their social skills, impulsivity, anger management and moral reasoning. It is usually a 30 hour, three times a week for 10 weeks program (Guerra, & Williams, 1970). It is believed that this type of program can be effective in reducing the recidivism rates amongst juvenile delinquents. Research found that juvenile offenders that did not receive treatment program had higher rates and risks of offending opposed to the juvenile offenders who did receive the treatment program (Zhou, Gan, Hoo, Chong, & Chu, 2018). The total reductions found in recidivism amongst the juvenile offenders was approximately around 8% per individual (Guerra, & Williams, 1970).
With all of the research and data presented above, it is obvious that there are a lot of things being done well and a lot of things not working to their full potential. With a new treatment program, designed for juvenile delinquents with mental illness, I want to bring a new and fresh outlook to the juvenile system. Not only for the already sentenced offenders, but for the youth pre-sentenced worldwide as well. It is found that many youth offenders reduce their criminal behavior as they get older, some youth offenders become persistent, life-long offenders leading into their adulthood (Kempker, Schmidt, & Espinosa, 2017). It is very important that certain aspects of our youth are taken seriously and protected at all costs. The rise of juvenile offenders is shocking and there is only one way to go about attempting to control it, and that is genuinely caring about the well-beings of our youth and our society’s future. With an all-around treatment program that touches on education, employment and mental health, with working professionals with a passion and drive to make a change, a new and fresh treatment program can do wonders for communities, families, children, schools, juvenile systems, etc. all around the world. The criminogenic needs of our youth should be a top priority as they are our society’s future. The younger generations now and to come deserve and need a treatment program that only sets them up for happiness, good health, positive outlooks and success for each and every one of their futures.
References
- Banks, B. P., & Gibbons, M. M. (2016). Dialectical Behavior Therapy Techniques for Counseling Incarcerated Female Adolescents: A Case Illustration. Journal of Addictions & Offender Counseling, 37(1), 49–62. https://doi.org/10.1002/jaoc.12015
- Conti, G., Heckman, J. J., & Pinto, R. (2016). The Effects of Two Influential Early Childhood Interventions on Health and Healthy Behaviour. Economic Journal, 126(596), F28–F65. https://doi.org/10.1111/ecoj.12420
- Gaete, J., Labbé, N., del Villar, P., Allende, C., Araya, R., & Valenzuela, E. (2018). Mental health and associated factors among young offenders in Chile: a cross-sectional study. Criminal Behaviour & Mental Health, 28(1), 13–27. https://doi.org/10.1002/cbm.2029
- Guerra, N. G., & Williams, K. R. (1970). Implementing Evidence-Based Practices for Juvenile Justice Prevention and Treatment in Communities. Retrieved from https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-1-4614-0905-2_19
- Kempker, S., Schmidt, A., & Espinosa, E. (2017). Understanding the Influence of Mental Health Diagnosis and Gender on Placement Decisions for Justice-Involved Youth. Journal of Youth & Adolescence, 46(7), 1562.
- May, J., Osmond, K., & Billick, S. (2014). Juvenile Delinquency Treatment and Prevention: A Literature Review. Psychiatric Quarterly, 85(3), 295. Retrieved from https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=edb&AN=97411664&site=eds-live&scope=site
- Royster, M. (2012). The Success and Failure of Scared Straight: A Reassessment of Juvenile Delinquency Deterrent Methods and their Measurements. International Journal of Interdisciplinary Social Sciences, 6(8), 145–151. https://doi.org/10.18848/1833-1882/CGP/v06i08/52143
- Schubert, C. A., Mulvey, E. P., Hawes, S. W., & Davis, M. (2018). Educational and employment patterns in serious adolescent offenders with mental health disorders: The importance of educational attainment. Criminal Justice and Behavior, 45(11), 1660–1687. https://doi.org/10.1177/0093854818784330
- What Youth Incarceration Costs Taxpayers. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.usnews.com/news/blogs/data-mine/2014/12/09/what-youth-incarceration-costs-taxpayers
- Zhou, Y. Q., Gan, D. Z. Q., Hoo, E. C. C., Chong, D., & Chu, C. M. (2018). Evaluating the Violence Prevention Program: group and individual changes in aggression, anger, self-control, and empathy. Journal of Forensic Psychiatry & Psychology, 29(2), 265–287. https://doi.org/10.1080/14789949.2017.1375541
