NCJ Number
223236
Journal
Journal of Offender Rehabilitation Volume: 47 Issue: 1/2 Dated: 2008 Pages: 3-233
Date Published
2008
Length
21 pages
Annotation
This study examined executive functions in incarcerated adolescent female offenders using the Cognitive Assessment System (CAS).
Abstract
The findings suggest that incarcerated delinquent females can be differentiated from nondelinquent females on the basis of specific neuropsychological deficits in much the same way that male delinquents can be differentiated from nondelinquent males; neuropsychological risk factors associated with delinquency can be identified for females, just as other individual, familial, sociocultural, and peer-related factors have already been delineated. Although participants did not receive a formal psychiatric diagnosis and could not be divided into life-course-persistent or adolescent-onset groups on the basis of a diagnosis, the information obtained from the participants suggests that many of them had experienced behavioral disturbances from an early age and would likely fall into Moffitt’s life-course-persistent category. This study may provide support to modify Moffitt’s typology to include a delayed-onset pathway for adjudicated females. The predominance of antisocial behaviors in this sample combined with early arrests and early substance uses, suggest that behavioral disturbances escalated as the sample reached puberty and very quickly exceeded public tolerance for developmentally appropriate antisocial behaviors in adolescence, resulting in numerous judicial sanctions, and the possibility of behavioral and associated difficulties into adulthood. Adolescents may not achieve full benefit from intervention strategies unless specific cognitive deficits, such as planning and successive processing deficits are also addressed. Data were collected from 100 adolescent females admitted to a local youth detention facility un the authority of Canada’s then Federal Young Offenders Act who had either been remanded in custody pending trial or sentencing, or had been sentenced following a finding of guilt. Table, references