April 6, 2004
Trauma Highly Prevalent Among Delinquents
CHICAGO --- 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, non-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.
Abram is assistant
professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences. Her co-authors
on this study were Linda A. Teplin, Owen L. Coon
Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences and director of
the Psycholegal Studies Program; Devon R. Charles; Sandra L. Longworth;
Gary M. McClelland, research assistant professor of psychiatry
and behavioral sciences, and Mina K. Dulcan, M.D., professor of
psychiatry and behavioral sciences and head of child and adolescent
psychiatry, Children’s Memorial Hospital.
This study was supported by grants from the National Institutes
of Health, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration,
the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Office of Juvenile
Justice and Delinquency Prevention, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation,
the William T. Grant Foundation and a consortium of other agencies. |