STUDY
Trauma among delinquents
Almost every boy and girl currently detained in a
juvenile facility in the United States has experienced at least one
major trauma, and a large proportion of these children have
post-traumatic stress disorder, according to a study in the April issue
of Archives of General Psychiatry. Karen M. Abram and colleagues at the
Psycholegal Studies Program at the Feinberg School of Medicine at
Northwestern University showed that over 90 percent of delinquent youth
in a large, temporary detention center for juveniles had had one or more
traumas, such as witnessing violence or being threatened with a weapon.
Abram and co-researchers assessed psychiatric
disorders in 900 African American, no-Hispanic white and Hispanic teens
who were 10 to 18 years old and randomly selected at admission to the
Cook County Juvenile Temporary Detention Center. About 8,500 juveniles
enter the facility each year for pre-trial detention and brief
sentences. The Cook County facility was selected because it is typical
of other urban detention centers nationwide.
Results of the study also showed that a significantly
higher number of boys than girls — 93 percent versus 84 percent —
reported at least one traumatic experience. More than 12 percent of the
participants met the diagnostic criteria for post-traumatic stress
disorder.
“While it's true that the study participants, like
most juvenile detainees in the United States, live in urban areas that
have high rates of violence, our findings also are consistent with
research linking traumatic victimization in childhood and subsequent
psychosocial problems, such as delinquency and drug use,” Abram said.
Among their other recommendations, the researchers
said that the mental health system must improve services for high-risk
youth who are victims of trauma; improve the detection of post-traumatic
stress disorder in juvenile detainees; and avoid re-traumatizing
children during detention.
6 April 2004
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2004-04/nu-tap040104.php
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