Youthful Offending and Delinquency: The Comorbid Impact of Maltreatment, Mental Health Problems, and Learning Disabilities

• Published in: Child & adolescent social work journal Vol. 31; no. 4; pp. 369 - 392
• Main Author: Mallett, Christopher A.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Boston Springer US 01.08.2014; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Adolescents; Behavioral Science and Psychology; Child abuse & neglect; Clinical Psychology; Comorbidity; Delinquency; Delinquency Prevention; Health Problems; Imprisonment; Juvenile Courts; Juvenile Delinquency; Juvenile Justice; Juvenile offenders; Learning disabilities; Mental Health; Mentally Retarded; Personality and Social Psychology; Psychology; Sociology; Victimization; Learning disabilities; Maltreatment; Comorbid; Delinquency; Serious offending; Mental health
• ISSN: 0738-0151; 1573-2797
• DOI: 10.1007/s10560-013-0323-3

A majority of adolescents formally involved in juvenile court have at least one, if not more than one, significant emotional or learning impairment, or maltreatment experience. This is particularly true in juvenile detention and incarceration facility populations. While this problem is increasingly recognized within the juvenile justice system and social work profession, often the impact and correlation to delinquency of these child and youth difficulties is underestimated. This paper reviews the links from mental health disorders, learning (and academic-related) disabilities, and maltreatment victimizations to delinquent and serious youthful offending behaviors, and provides successful collaboration outcome examples to address this problem. The most difficult challenge to juvenile courts and youth-caring systems is working with adolescents and families with comorbid difficulties, for this group is most at risk for incarceration and involvement with the adult criminal justice system.