Mental Health Issues among Minority Offenders in the Juvenile Justice System

Abstract

Disproportionate levels of minority confinement combined with high rates of mental health problems among confined youths have created negative images about the role of the juvenile justice system in meeting the rehabilitative needs of minority youth with mental health problems. The goal of the present chapter is to address the mental health issues among offenders in the juvenile justice system as well as examine mental disorders among minority offenders in particular. Our discussion will begin with a review of mental health definitions and move to issues of measurement and evidence of mental disorders among juvenile justice youths, examining issues of ethnicity at each turn. These sections will focus on: How we define mental disorders among adolescents; How we measure and identify mental disorders; What we know about the prevalence of mental disorders among youths in general and in the juvenile justice system, with a particular focus on ethnicity; What we know about the juvenile justice system's identification of youths' mental disorders, its methods of mental health service delivery to those youths, and what issues arise in identifying and responding to youths of various ethnic backgrounds. At the conclusion, we will summarize what information is known about mental health issues among minority youth in the juvenile justice system and point toward future research directions as well as practical needs in this area. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved)