Connecting the Dots through a Case Report: A Child’s Unmet Needs,Neuropsychological Impairment and Entrance into the Juvenile Justice System

ABSTRACT

Adolescent involvement in the criminal and juvenile justice systems has received widespread attention at national, state, and local levels. Developmental neuroscience has shaped our understanding of adolescence as a distinct period during which young people are at increased risk for a host of problems, especially entrance into the criminal and juvenile justice systems. Overrepresentation of Black and Latino youth, particularly those with disabilities, remains of significant concern. This case study explores the case of a 13-year-old boy, Trey (a fictional name), and his path into the school-to-prison pipeline. The roles of neighborhood, family poverty, parental health, trauma, chronic stress, and attendance to underserved schools are outlined. These factors are connected to Trey’s special needs like trauma, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, and learning difficulties/disabilities going undiagnosed and untreated within the context of the neurobiological immaturity of adolescence. The extent to which these factors converged to result in neuropsychological impairment is explored. This case analysis focuses attention on implications for research, policy and practice in preventing youth in underserved communities from entering the criminal and juvenile justice systems.     

Adolescent Development and Juvenile Justice

The central question examined in this address is, “Do children's crimes make them adults?” I begin by focusing on the concept and history of adolescence in our society, I then examine the development and philosophy of the juvenile justice system. Adolescent development and juvenile justice are brought together around the concepts of maturity, judgment, and competence, followed by a brief introduction to some current research that we are engaged in regarding the issues of adjudicatory and culpability competence. I conclude with suggested directions for future work.     

Gender Differences in Delinquency in Early,Middle, and Late Adolescence: An Exploration of Parent and Friend Relationships

Researchers often examine juvenile delinquency without considering the developmental differences between early, middle, and late adolescence. Much research suggests that relationships with parents and friends differ throughout adolescence; however, no research to date has explored how gender differences in friend and parent relationships throughout the stages of adolescence may affect delinquent involvement. In the current project, I utilize a large sample of adolescents to explore the ways friend and parental relationships differ among young men and women throughout adolescence and how these changing relationships affect gender differences in delinquency. I find that both friend relationships and parent–child bonding affect delinquency and that these relationships differ by both gender and stage of adolescence.     

Collecting Informed Consent with Juvenile Justice Populations: Issues and Implications for Research

Researchers must provide participants with opportunities to make informed decisions about whether to participate in research studies. Investigators conducting research with youth in the juvenile justice system face unique ethical, legal, and practical challenges to obtaining informed consent. Juvenile justice researchers must navigate multiple legal and ethical standards for collecting informed consent, take into account youths’ dual vulnerabilities as children and prisoners, and overcome practical limitations to obtaining parental/guardian permission. Given the challenges and complexity of obtaining standard informed consent of youth in juvenile justice facilities, this paper provides suggestions for overcoming obstacles to recruiting these youth for research participation. It offers guidance for fostering the enrollment of juvenile justice youth in research studies using procedures that comply with ethical and legal standards for research with this dually vulnerable population. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The Conference Morning Keynote Address of Dr. Laurence Steinberg on the Age of Opportunity and Lessons from the New Science of Adolescence: With Introductory and Closing Commentary

ABSTRACT

Dr. Laurence Steinberg’s busy schedule prevented him from contributing his own journal article based on his keynote address. However, he was able to review, edit, and approve the contents of this article, which captures his keynote address, while covering the following topics: 1) the need to change how adolescence is conceived as something to survive; 2) the need to turn to brain science for a new vision of adolescence, including the importance of understanding brain plasticity; 3) the essential focus on self-control as a factor for consideration, as per findings from research; 4) the impact from the interaction of sex hormones and the neurotransmitter dopamine upon adolescents; 5) how adolescence is a stage of opportunity, as well as vulnerability due to brain plasticity—as in being vulnerable to mental illness, substance dependence, and stress and trauma; 6) the need to change how we think about juvenile justice policy and practice, and five lessons from brain science in this regard; 7) the importance of considering early disadvantages for children of color and implications for disparities; 8) implications, overall, for policy and practice in the criminal justice system; 9) the need to re-think how society sanctions adolescents, as well as the need for professionals and society to take advantage of adolescence as an opportunity. Finally, the article ends with the author’s own commentary and analysis, which extends some of the implications of the keynote address—including the need to focus on both proximal and distal factors, such as social determinants of disadvantage.     

Not Just Doing Time: Distinct Typologies of Attitudes and Emotions among Juvenile Justice‐Involved Youth

Adolescents’ views of the legal system, just world beliefs, and moral emotions are interrelated and form an important frame of reference, particularly for young people involved in the juvenile justice system. Yet past scholarship has generally treated these as independent indices of youths’ experience. This study took a person‐centered, latent profile approach to attitudes and beliefs among 136 male youth incarcerated within secure US juvenile facilities. Three heterogeneous profiles were found (negative attitudes/low emotion, moderate attitudes/mixed emotions, and positive attitudes/positive emotion) which were differentially associated with antisocial behavior. Youth who belonged to historically marginalized populations had significantly lower odds of belonging to a protective profile characterized by positive legal attitudes, just world beliefs, and emotions (positive attitudes/positive emotion). Findings highlight our gaps in understanding young people’s experiences with legal and judicial entities and illustrate significant heterogeneity in youth’s frame of reference within the juvenile justice system.     

A Research Framework for Understanding the Practical Impact of Family Involvement in the Juvenile Justice System: The Juvenile Justice Family Involvement Model

Family involvement is recognized as a critical element of service planning for children’s mental health, welfare and education. For the juvenile justice system, however, parents’ roles in this system are complex due to youths’ legal rights, public safety, a process which can legally position parents as plaintiffs, and a historical legacy of blaming parents for youth indiscretions. Three recent national surveys of juvenile justice‐involved parents reveal that the current paradigm elicits feelings of stress, shame and distrust among parents and is likely leading to worse outcomes for youth, families and communities. While research on the impact of family involvement in the justice system is starting to emerge, the field currently has no organizing framework to guide a research agenda, interpret outcomes or translate findings for practitioners. We propose a research framework for family involvement that is informed by a comprehensive review and content analysis of current, published arguments for family involvement in juvenile justice along with a synthesis of family involvement efforts in other child‐serving systems. In this model, family involvement is presented as an ascending, ordinal concept beginning with (1) exclusion, and moving toward climates characterized by (2) information‐giving, (3) information‐eliciting and (4) full, decision‐making partnerships. Specific examples of how courts and facilities might align with these levels are described. Further, the model makes predictions for how involvement will impact outcomes at multiple levels with applications for other child‐serving systems.     

Using a Creative Intervention to Increase Self-Disclosure Among Mandated Juveniles with Co-Occurring Disorders

Abstract

Counselors providing treatment within the juvenile justice system encounter numerous challenges that are inherent in working with this population. One of the challenges includes providing treatment to adolescents who are entering the juvenile justice system with co-occurring mental health and substance use disorders. Given the challenges, creative interventions that enhance client motivation and the therapeutic relationship are especially needed. The purpose of this article is to propose a creative intervention that may enhance the therapeutic relationship, increase client investment in treatment, and facilitate client self-disclosure. A case illustration will be used to illustrate the intervention.     

Chaos and Trauma in the Lives of Adolescent Females with Antisocial Behavior and Delinquency

Summary

Female adolescents entering the juvenile justice system have complex and serious problems in multiple areas of adjustment. Literature is reviewed on the prevalence and form of antisocial behavior in girls and on the long-term implications of such problems in adolescence. Risk factor characteristics, including family fragmentation, physical and sexual trauma, mental health problems, official arrest and self-report offending histories of a population of girls referred for out-of-home placement because of repeated and chronic juvenile offending are presented. In addition, with the exception of sexual trauma histories, these sample characteristics are compared to a similar sample of chronically offending boys. A treatment approach is described and pilot data are presented on its feasibility. Implications for designing empirically-based, gender-related treatment models are discussed.     

Cluster A Personality Disorders: Schizotypal,Schizoid and Paranoid Personality Disorders in Childhood and Adolescence

Cluster A personality disorders (PD), including schizotypal personality disorder (SPD), paranoid personality disorder (PPD), and schizoid PD, are marked by odd and eccentric behaviors, and are grouped together because of common patterns in symptomatology as well as shared genetic and environmental risk factors. The DSM-IV-TR describes personality disorders as representing stable and enduring patterns of maladaptive traits, and much of what is understood about Cluster A personality disorders in particular stems from research with adult populations. Less in known about these disorders in children and adolescents, and controversy remains regarding diagnosis of personality disorders in general in youth. The current paper reviews the available research on Cluster A personality disorders in childhood and adolescence; specifically, we discuss differentiating between the three disorders and distinguishing them from other syndromes, measuring Cluster A disorders in youth, and the nature and course of these disorders throughout childhood and adolescence. We also present recent longitudinal data from a sample of adolescents diagnosed with Cluster A personality disorders from our research laboratory, and suggest directions for future research in this important but understudied area.     

Applied and Translational Research on Trauma‐Responsive Programs and Policy: Introduction to a Special Issue of the American Journal of Community Psychology

The special issue highlights work across systems that include child welfare, education, juvenile justice and health, as well as agencies serving adults who are at‐risk for high levels of childhood and adult trauma exposure. While articles appearing in the special issue are not divided equally across these systems, they cover important and overlapping concepts within each. Some articles span more than a single system or domain of research, whereas others fit primarily within single area or domain. Articles provide new insights from research on practices, programs, and policies that help to transform systems so they are increasingly more responsive to the needs of vulnerable populations.     

The paradoxical effect of a juvenile code change in Virginia

The impact of a new state juvenile code on the processing of youth through one court locale was examined using an interrupted time-series design. The intent of the new code was to limit penetration of youth into the juvenile justice system. This locale, however, showed an increased number of youth going through to court despite no increase in the number of youth arrested. The importance of this paradoxical effect for local juvenile justice planners and court officials is discussed briefly. This paper is based on research that was presented at the annual meeting of the American Psychological Association, Montreal, Quebec, 1980.     

Prototypical analysis of adolescent psychopathy: investigating the juvenile justice perspective

The past ten years have seen a dramatic increase in the empirical investigation of psychopathic characteristics in children and adolescents. In general, the focus of this research has been on the validation of assessment instruments to evaluate psychopathy as well as concurrent and predictive validity. Little attention has been directed toward elucidating the core characteristics of this construct. The current study expands on previous research by asking juvenile justice personnel (424 juvenile detention and probation officers) to identify the core characteristics of the construct via prototypical analysis for both male and female adolescents. Results of separate factor analyses by gender revealed five identifiable dimensions: juvenile delinquency, serious/violent conduct problems, narcissistic/manipulation of others, impulsivity/acting out, and family problems. The results suggest that juvenile justice personnel focus on a wide range of behavioral indicators as indicative of adolescent psychopathy in addition to affective and interpersonal characteristics typically viewed as crucial to the construct by clinicians.     

The Impact of Rumination on State Paranoid Ideation in a Nonclinical Sample

Cognitive-behavioral models of paranoia have emphasized the potential role of perseverative thinking styles, such as rumination or worry, in the development, maintenance and exacerbation of paranoid beliefs. This study aimed to experimentally test the hypothesis that rumination may play a role in the maintenance or exacerbation of state paranoid ideation. Following a paranoia induction, 37 nonclinical participants were randomly assigned to either a rumination task or a distraction control condition. In accord with main hypothesis, rumination was associated with maintained levels of paranoia, whereas distraction was associated with a decrease in levels of paranoia. These findings suggest that perseverative thinking may play a role in the maintenance of paranoid ideas, which may have implications for our understanding of the maintenance of paranoia and persecutory delusions in the clinical population. Furthermore, the study used a novel experimental paradigm for inducing paranoia, which may prove valuable for future research aiming to elicit paranoid thoughts and feelings in vivo.     

Reading disability in adjudicated youth: Prevalence rates,current models,traditional and innovative treatments

This paper reviews current literature from two distinct but overlapping domains: juvenile delinquency (JD) and reading disability (RD). In light of the substantial evidence that RD is both associated with, and causally involved in JD, it is alarming how little extant research has systematically investigated remediation strategies for use in the juvenile corrections system. The paper begins with a definition and a review of approaches for conceptualizing JD. RD is placed within the context of a large domain of risk factors for JD. We then define RD and introduce studies that establish the link between RD and JD, and give estimates of its prevalence within the JD population. We discuss briefly the role of attentional problems in mediating the relationship between RD and JD, before exploring the tenets and some limitations of common theories of RD. This is followed by a brief review of the literature that has begun to investigate the efficacy of various reading remediation approaches within the juvenile detention setting. We conclude by previewing some promising new research employing computer-based training and highlight recommendations for future research on RD in the JD population.     

Elevating the Voices of Girls in Custody for Improved Treatment and Systemic Change in the Juvenile Justice System

The U.S. juvenile justice system does not meet the needs of girls in custody, and often fails to address girls’ symptoms of trauma and high rates of sexual exploitation histories. As the system shifts away from punitive detention to a trauma‐informed approach with community‐based services, community psychologists and other helping professionals can help center the needs and experiences of girls in custody. As part of a multi‐year collaboration, our research team created a confidential youth advisory process in one juvenile detention center (JDC). We acted as liaisons between the girls in custody and JDC administrators, reporting girls’ feedback to agencies at monthly meetings. Participant confidentiality, safety, and consent were priorities. The girls’ feedback, which was conceptualized within a System Responsiveness and hierarchy of needs framework, led JDC probation and mental health staff to improve services (e.g., better laundry system, longer showers, warmer food), climate (e.g., consistent reward system, confidentiality of grievances), and treatment (e.g., increase focus on gender and culture) to reduce the trauma of incarceration among girls in custody. Girls’ feedback also catalyzed systemic change that led to a reduction in the JDC population in favor of wraparound community‐based services better suited to meet girls’ needs. Implications for community psychology values and the juvenile justice system, including the benefits and challenges of this type of collaboration, are discussed.     

Incarcerated and Court‐Involved Adolescents: Counseling an At‐Risk Population

In this article, the authors provide the counselor wishing to work with incarcerated adolescents with background information relating to the current scope of the problem and the current state of the juvenile justice system in the United States. The authors also review the current research regarding juvenile delinquency and outline a series of clinical techniques. The authors close by providing a developmental framework for enhancing the understanding of and guiding treatment for this difficult population.     

Peer Counseling Strategies: Facilitating Self-Disclosure Among Sexually Victimized Juvenile Offenders

The purpose of this study was to investigate the childhood sexual victimizations reported among juvenile offenders and determine the intervention strategies considered most influential in facilitating the self-disclosure of those assaults. The results suggest significantly large numbers of adolescent males entering the juvenile justice system have been sexually victimized and clinicians might best reduce male victim denial with peer interventions which facilitate group cohesiveness, interpersonal support and hope, unconditional acceptance, and the altruistic helping of others. These findings are discussed in relation to the need for developing humanistic peer group intervention strategies within juvenile correctional facilities.     

Promoting positive human development and social justice: Integrating theory,research and application in contemporary developmental science

The bold claim that developmental science can contribute to both enhancing positive development among diverse individuals across the life span and promoting social justice in their communities, nations and regions is supported by decades of theoretical, methodological and research contributions. To explain the basis of this claim, I describe the relational developmental systems (RDS) metamodel that frames contemporary developmental science, and I present an example of a programme of research within the adolescent portion of the life span that is associated with this metamodel and is pertinent to promoting positive human development. I then discuss methodological issues associated with using RDS‐based models as frames for research and application. Finally, I explain how the theoretical and methodological ideas associated with RDS thinking may provide the scholarly tools needed by developmental scientists seeking to contribute to human thriving and to advance social justice in the Global South.     

Challenges in implementing evidence-based treatment practices for co-occurring disorders in the criminal justice system

The presence of adults with mental health and substance abuse disorders within the criminal justice system has become increasingly evident over the past decade. Interventions and treatment services have been designed and research conducted in an effort to establish evidence-based practices that effectively address the complex needs of this population. However, adopting and implementing these evidence-based interventions and practices within the real-world setting of criminal justice environments is challenging. This article reviews the research literature related to evidence-based treatment practices for offenders with co-occurring mental health and substance abuse disorders and explores the inherent challenges of fitting these interventions and services within criminal justice settings.