NCJ Number
199586
Journal
Justice Policy Journal: Analyzing Criminal and Juvenile Justice Issues and Policies Volume: 1 Issue: 1 Dated: August 2001 Pages: 40-59
Editor(s)
Daniel Macallair
Date Published
August 2001
Length
20 pages
Annotation
This paper addresses the mental health needs of youths within the juvenile justice system through the resolve of six critical challenges that include the accurate assessment of mental disorders.
Abstract
As juvenile justice systems have toughened, there increasingly are critical challenges to addressing the mental health needs of youthful offenders. These critical challenges include: (1) increasing scholarly and practitioner recognition of juvenile offender mental health needs; (2) raising awareness about the importance of mental health as a potential predictor of recidivism and as constituting the "best interests" of juveniles; (3) focusing attention on co-occurring rather than specific areas of need; (4) promoting the use of needs assessment; (5) identifying resource and service gaps and promoting diversion; and (6) encouraging collaboration among juvenile justice, child welfare, social service, and education systems. The focus of this paper argues for greater attention to comprehensive and systematic identification and treatment of the mental health needs of youthful offenders. Each of the above challenges are outlined with their implications for efficiently and effectively addressing the mental health needs of youths. There are a number of promising approaches to addressing the challenges in meeting the mental health needs of youthful offenders. This paper describes two of these approaches: (1) juvenile assessment centers and (2) wraparound service programs. References