Hurricane Katrina's impact on the mental health of adolescent female offenders

Abstract

Exposure to multiple traumatic events and high rates of mental health problems are common among juvenile offenders. This study draws on Conservation of Resources (COR) stress theory to examine the impact of a specific trauma, Hurricane Katrina, relative to other adverse life events, on the mental health of female adolescent offenders in Mississippi. Teenage girls (N=258, 69% African American) were recruited from four juvenile detention centers and the state training school. Participants were interviewed about the occurrence and timing of adverse life events and hurricane-related experiences and completed a self-administered mental health assessment. Hierarchical linear regression models were used to identify predictors of anxiety and depression. Pre-hurricane family stressors, pre-hurricane traumatic events, hurricane-related property damage, and receipt of hurricane-related financial assistance significantly predicted symptoms of anxiety and depression. Findings support COR theory. Family stressors had the greatest influence on symptoms of anxiety and depression, highlighting the need for family based services that address the multiple, inter-related problems and challenges in the lives of female juvenile offenders.     

Subtypes of adolescent offenders: affective traits and antisocial behavior patterns

Etiological models of life-course persistent offending often emphasize behavioral explanations. Suggestions that persistent offenders have psychopathy ignore the distinct non-behavioral features of the psychopathy disorder. Using a three-factor model of the PCL-YV and cluster analysis with 259 incarcerated adolescents, we identified four distinct juvenile subtypes on the basis of affective, interpersonal, and behavioral dimensions. Prospective and retrospective comparisons of antisocial behavior patterns found the cluster comprising all three psychopathy dimensions to be the most chronic and severe. Impulsive features alone were strongly associated with severe antisocial behaviors retrospectively, but not prospectively. Findings rebut the proposal that disruptive behavioral and impulsive symptoms can identify "fledgling psychopaths." Assessments that disregard callous-unemotional traits will likely result in high false positive rates among serious adolescent offenders. Implications for developmental models of chronic offending are discussed in light of the need for further follow-up into adulthood.     

Neuropsychological executive functions of adolescent sex offenders and nonsex offenders

A growing body of research now suggests that a substantial number of criminal offenders display neuropsychological deficits, especially frontal-executive dysfunctions. The present study investigated the possibility of similar deficits by comparing the performance of 60 adolescent sex offenders court-ordered to a residential treatment facility with the performance of 60 nonsexual delinquent offenders matched on several pertinent sociodemographic characteristics and scores on four neuropsychological tests: (1) the Trail Making Test, (2) the Controlled Oral Word Association test of the Multilingual Aphasia Examination, (3) the Tower of London, and (4) the Wisconsin Card-sorting Test. Analysis indicated a pattern of frontal-executive dysfunction in a subset of both groups of offenders; this pattern has both theoretical and treatment implications.     

Predicting recidivism in adolescent sexual offenders

The prediction of risk of sexual recidivism in adult sex offenders has been grounded on research identifying reliable markers or risk factors, the so-called static and dynamic variables. For adolescents such reliable factors in the prediction of risk of sexual recidivism have so far not been unequivocally revealed. The aim of this systematic review was to screen the available research literature for such factors. The results indicated that regarding static or historical risk variables some can be found repeatedly to be linked to sexual recidivism in adolescents such as previous offending and multiple or stranger victims. Considering dynamic variables there is much less documented evidence in the research literature possibly as a result of lack of adequate psychometric tools. Overall, regarding risk of sexual recidivism there continues to be a great need for research.     

Suicidal and criminal behavior among female offenders: the role of abuse and psychopathology

Childhood abuse is relatively prevalent among women and is an important risk factor for both criminal behavior and suicide-related behavior (SRB). Based on a sample of 266 female offenders, we address one theoretical and one practical issue. First, from a theoretical perspective, we assess whether internalizing (depression and anxiety) and externalizing (substance abuse and antisocial behavior) psychopathology mediate the relation between abuse on the one hand, and SRB or criminal behavior, on the other. Results indicate that externalizing problems mediate the relation between childhood abuse and both lifetime SRB (fully) and lifetime criminality (partially). Second, at a practical level, results indicate that a subscale of the Revised Psychopathy Checklist (PCL-R; Hare, 1991) that assesses lifetime criminal behavior adds incremental utility to postdicting SRB, beyond the variance accounted for by self-report measures of abuse and externalizing problems. However, none of the measures-including the PCL-R-predicted future recidivism.     

Self-esteem and institutionalized delinquent offenders: the role of background characteristics.

Some of the delinquency literature sustains the assumption that inept persons doing unworthy things is the self-view held by youth offenders, "Disadvantaged" or "adverse" background characteristics are often assumed to account for low self-esteem among delinquent offenders. However, the implications of control theory suggest that youths having few bonds to people and institutions are relatively "free" to drift into delinquency without serious damage to self-esteem. The hypothesis we examined was derived from the work of control theorists: that self-esteem would be higher for offenders "removed" from conventional ties, lower for those who maintained conventional attachments. Data from 75 male delinquent offenders incarcerated at a correctional youth institution are used in testing this relationship. Our hypothesis received strong support. The implication drawn from these results is that the impact of the correctional process on self-esteem may be far less important than the myriad relationships previously established with people and institutions. These results pertaining to a special category of youth are in keeping with the reported findings on the link between deprivation and self-esteem of general youth populations.     

Psychopathy in adolescent female offenders: an item response theory analysis of the psychopathy checklist: youth version

The present study examined the applicability of the PCL:YV items to a sample of detained adolescent girls. Item response theory (IRT) was used to analyze test and item functioning of the PCL:YV. Examination of IRT trace lines indicated that the items most discriminating of the underlying construct of psychopathy included "callousness and a lack of empathy", "conning and manipulation", and "a grandiose sense of self-worth". Results from the analyses also demonstrated that the items least discriminating in this sample, or least useful for identifying psychopathy, included "poor anger control", "shallow affect", or engaging in a "serious violation of conditional release". Consistent with previous research (Cooke & Michie, 1997; Hare, 2003), interpersonal and affective components of psychopathy provided more information than behavioral features. Moreover, although previous research has also found affective features to provide the most information in past studies, it was interpersonal features of psychopathy in this case, followed by affective features, that provided greater levels of information. Implications of these results are discussed.     

The influence of male and female best friends on adolescent sexual behavior

Using panel data from a junior high school system in an urban area of Florida, we examine whether adolescents' best same-sex and best opposite-sex friends' sexual intercourse behavior increases the likelihood that respondents who are virgins at round 1 will make the transition to intercourse between rounds of our study. We find no significant influence effects of friends of either sex for black males or females, or white males. In contrast, white females are influenced by the sexual behavior of both their best female friend and best male friend. A virgin white female whose best friends of both sexes were sexually experience at round 1 was almost certain to have sexual intercourse within the two years of our study.     

Factors associated with erection in adolescent sex offenders

A majority of adult child molesters report that their deviant interest began prior to the age of 18. This illustrates the need to evaluate adolescents who have molested children. Since self-report of deviant interest is rare in adolescent offenders, psychophysiologic assessment is necessary to help to determine the extent for a deviant interest pattern. The current study was designed to determine what factors are associated with erectile responding to age-inappropriate stimuli in an adolescent sex offender population. Factors studied were (a) admit/deny, (b) history of physical abuse, (c) history of sexual abuse, (d) history of nonsex arrests, and (e) incest/nonincest. The dependent variables were two pedophile indices, a relative measure of deviant to nondeviant arousal. Results indicated that history of sexual abuse was associated with more deviant erectile responding in those adolescents who had molested young boys. The possibility of adolescents modeling their own victimization is discussed.     

Bullying behaviors in female and male adolescent offenders: prevalence,types, and association with psychosocial adjustment

Despite the surge of research on bullying, few studies have examined bullying in young offenders, particularly female young offenders. This study investigated the prevalence, types, and correlates of bullying behaviors in 193 male and 50 female incarcerated adolescents from nine young offender facilities. Overall, 37% of participants identified themselves as bully‐victims, 32% as pure bullies, 23% as not involved, and 8% as pure victims. In comparison to males, females were more likely to report being involved with bullying in some capacity, particularly as pure victims, and being bullied by sexual touching and comments. Pure victims reported higher rates of psychological distress and suicidal behaviors than those youth not involved in bullying, and pure bullies were more likely to have been previously incarcerated and affiliated with a gang. Bully‐victims reported the highest rates of previous abuse, peer victimization in the community, drug use, and suicide attempts while in custody. All groups, including pure victims, reported high rates of bullying others in the community. Treatment providers should recognize that offenders who are victims are often bullies as well, and be alert to broad mental health needs among victims and bully‐victims. Given the prevalence and potential serious consequences of bullying, the development of anti‐bullying policies appears to be an important step in recognizing and reducing bullying. Aggr. Behav. 00:1–16, 2005. © 2005 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.     

Identification of adolescent sexual offenders: A rebt model

The adolescent sexual offender is perhaps one of the most misunderstood, misdiagnosed and maltreated clinical populations facing today's mental health practitioner. They are often the adolescents whom no one wishes to have in their family, school, neighborhood and, sometimes, office. Since this clinical population is relatively new and research has yet to establish consistent findings, attempts to categorize these adolescents are often subjective and inaccurate. This article outlines the problems in traditional diagnostic schemes for identifying adolescent sexual offenders, the myths surrounding the predisposing factors for becoming an adolescent sexual offender, the rationale and process based on Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy (Ellis, 1962) for identifying adolescent sexual offenders and how to discriminate this group from adolescents who engage in inappropriate sexual behavior. These two classifications are the two categories for identifying the adolescent sexual offenders for our program at Children's Service Center in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. The Children's Service Center adolescent sexual offender program currently has a zero recidivism rate for the past four years.     

Level of functioning and recidivism risk among adolescent offenders

The assessment of offending youth is important in determining the most appropriate disposition for adolescents involved in the justice system. Recent studies have found a relationship between justice system involvement and level-of-functioning (LOF). This study investigated the relationship between LOF and recidivism risk among adolescents involved in a community-based, juvenile justice treatment program. The results document that conceptually similar domains are substantively correlated; however, a range of functioning was found among youth considered to have the same risk of recidivism. Overall, the results suggest that LOF measures may be associated with risk measures due to a convergence of areas assessed and that the two constructs also may have a relationship analogous to LOF and clinical diagnosis.     

Comparisons of female and male early adolescent sex role attitude and behavior development

This study contrasted female and male early adolescent sex role attitude and behavior development in an ecological context as defined by Bronfenbrenner. Data were the results of a state-wide survey of early adolescents and their parents. Hierarchical multiple regression was used to test both sex role attitude development and behavior development models. Only the models for attitude development were significant. The level of traditionalism of female sex role attitude development was significantly influenced by maternal employment, the level of traditionalism of the father's sex role attitudes in interaction with the amount of time he spent with his daughter, and chronological age. In contrast, the level of traditionalism of male sex role attitude development was significantly influenced by the level of traditionalism of the mother's sex role attitudes in interaction with the level of closeness to the mother that was reported by the son, and both mother's and father's perception of pubertal age. The implications of the findings for human development theory, early adolescence as a stage of development, and sex role theory and research are discussed.     

MMPI-A performance of African and Mexican American adolescent first-time offenders

54 African and Mexican American adolescent first-time offenders were examined with the MMPI-A to evaluate ethnic differences. Multivariate analyses by ethnicity and MMPI-A scales (validity, clinical, content, and supplementary scales) were not significant; however, there was a significant univariate difference where African American adolescents scored significantly higher on the Repression scale than the Mexican American group. A greater percentage of within-normal-limits profiles were African American (50%) than Mexican American (25%). Research and clinical implications for using the MMPI-A with these groups are discussed.     

Salivary testosterone and cortisol among late adolescent male offenders

The relationship of salivary testosterone and cortisol concentrations to personality, criminal violence, prison behavior, and parole board decisions was examined among 113 late-adolescent male offenders. Offenders high in testosterone committed more violent crimes, were judged more harshly by the parole board, and violated prison rules more often than those low in testosterone. No main effects for cortisol emerged. However, as expected, a significant interaction between testosterone and cortisol was found, in which cortisol moderated the correlation between testosterone and violence of crime. Cortisol may be a biological indicator of psychological variables (e.g., social withdrawal) that moderate the testosterone-behavior relationship. Paper and pencil measures of personality and behavior showed little relationship to hormones.This research was supported in part by NIMH grant MH42525 and by a Vice-President's grant from Georgia State University. We wish to thank the Georgia Department of Corrections and the Georgia Board of Pardons and Paroles for making the research possible. In addition, we specifically extend thanks to Tim Carr (Department of Corrections); to Sue Aiken, Tom Morris, and Sheila Thompson (Board of Pardons and Paroles); and to Debra Plyler and Paula Williams for coding inmate records.     

A comparison of selected Rorschach variables of violent female offenders and female non-offenders

A national sample of incarcerated violent female offenders (N = 45) and a sample of female non-offenders (N = 30) were compared on nine selected Rorschach CS (Exner, 2003) variables and three of the aggression variables of Gacono and Meloy (1994). The results indicate that an avoidant and inconsistent coping style was more characteristic of the offenders than the non-offenders. The offenders were characterized by social immaturity and limited capacities to cope with stress as compared with the non-offenders. No significant differences were found between the two groups in handling intense emotions. Although the aggressive scores revealed no discrimination between the groups, significant correlations were found between the aggressive content score and childhood victimization. An inverse relation was found between the aggressive past score and the emotional intensity of the violent offense. The study indicates that the selected RCS variables related to adaptive resources for coping discriminate between violent offenders and non-offenders, but that the variables related to affective features need further examination.