Which Juvenile Crime Victims Get Mental Health Treatment?

• NCJ Number: 211483
• Journal: Child Abuse & Neglect Volume: 28 Issue: 1 Dated: 2004 Pages: 45-59
• Author(s): Kathy Kopiec; David Finkelhor; Janis Wolak
• Date Published: 2004
• Length: 15 pages
• Publication Format: Document (Online)
• Publication Type: Survey
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America
• Note: Downloaded September 30, 2005.

Annotation

This study examined factors that facilitate mental health treatment for juvenile crime victims.

Abstract

Telephone interviews were conducted with a national sample of 157 caretakers whose children had been seriously assaulted sexually or physically in the previous year. Interviews focused on two dependent variables: "thought about getting counseling" (Yes or No) and "received counseling" (Yes or No). Information was also obtained on the following independent variables: demographic characteristics, victimization characteristics, symptom variables, attitudes and beliefs, and other help services and informal help-seeking. Twenty-two percent of the caretakers had thought about getting professional counseling for their children as a result of their victimization, and 20 percent of the child victims actually received it; however, half of the families who thought about getting counseling did not follow through on this consideration. Nearly half of the children who received counseling did so without their families reporting that they had considered it in advance. The level of symptoms and factors in the parent-child relationship were related to the consideration of counseling, which was in turn significantly related to receiving counseling. Other factors were independently related to receiving counseling, such as the victimization occurring at school and the victim being perceived as at fault to some degree. Advice on getting counseling and medical insurance were also factors in receiving counseling. Thus, two pathways to counseling were identified; one occurred through direct parental concern related to perceptions that the child was depressed or withdrawn or that the parent-child relationship was being negatively affected. The other pathway occurred apart from parental concerns, most likely through school intervention in the context of a victimization at school. 3 tables, 1 figure, and 33 references