Prediction of juvenile recidivism: Influence of gender, psychiatric disorder, and neighborhood disadvantage

Psychiatric disorder and neighborhood disadvantage are two factors that may precipitate and/or perpetuate youths' delinquent or criminal behavior. The present work extends past research evaluating the relationship between psychiatric disorder and juvenile recidivism in two respects: (1) by considering a more comprehensive range of disorders, moving beyond externalizing disorders to include internalizing disorders and cross-domain psychopathology (i.e., co-occurring externalizing and internalizing disorder), and (2) by examining gender-specific (or gender-neutral) risks for recidivism associated with diagnostic profile. Drawing upon social disorganization and other contextual theories of crime, the proposed study examined the association between neighborhood disadvantage and juvenile recidivism. The current work also makes a unique contribution to the literature by evaluating the degree to which neighborhood disadvantage conditions individual level relationships between gender and psychiatric disorder and juvenile recidivism.; Logistic regression analyses evaluated the contribution of diagnostic clusters (disruptive behavior, substance use, anxiety, affective) and cross-domain psychopathology (co-occurring externalizing and internalizing disorder) to the prediction of recidivism over and above demographic and offense characteristics, and examined gender differences in risks associated with psychiatric disorder. Presence of an externalizing disorder (disruptive behavior and/or substance use) was associated with an increase in recidivism risk for both genders. In contrast, gender-specific findings were observed for both the presence of an affective disorder and cross-domain psychopathology. Compared to those without an affective disorder, mood-disordered girls were more likely to reoffend, while mood-disordered boys were less likely to reoffend. Given these findings, it was expectable that girls with cross-domain psychopathology would be more likely to reoffend than non-disordered girls, while boys with cross-domain psychopathology would be less likely to reoffend than non-disordered boys. Post-hoc analyses demonstrated that the gender difference in recidivism was particular evident for youth with co-occurring mood and substance use disorder.; Beyond substantiating practice guidelines that recommend a comprehensive mental health assessment for justice youth, these results highlight the unique mental health service needs of girls in juvenile justice settings.; Logistic regression analyses examined the contribution of neighborhood disadvantage to the prediction of recidivism net of individual level characteristics, as well as assessed whether neighborhood disadvantage modified individual level associations between gender and psychiatric disorder and an individual's risk for recidivism. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)...