Examined drug use patterns among incarcerated African-American juvenile delinquents (n=248). Found that 90 percent of participants had used some illicit mood altering substance, between 30 percent and 46 percent reported daily use, and average age at initial use was approximately 12 years. Alcohol use tended to precede by about five months use of…

Examined the games played by 561 juvenile offenders in coeducational correctional facilities. The types of games used against staff and peers varied considerably. The games were defined as therapeutic games, material games, psychological games, and physical games. Peer-oriented games included attention-seeking activities and a variety of dominance…

Obtained a factor analysis of demographic and behavioral variables from self-ratings and observations of trained raters on a sample of 200 incarcerated delinquents, which resulted in eight identifiable factors. Results provide understanding of the relationships and disparities between self-ratings, the ratings of others, and demographic variables.…

The aim of this study was to investigate several aspects of daily thinking among delinquents and nondelinquents while adequately controlling institutionalization. Noninstitutionalized subjects demonstrate a higher degree of activity in their daily thinking than their institutionalized counterparts. (Author)

Results indicated that adolescent males who maintain a relatively high level of acting out during residential treatment, in spite of firm and consistent treatment approaches, perceive their parents differently than do adolescents who exhibit increased self-control in the treatment setting. (SBH)

In the juvenile institution discussed in this paper, 15 youths are committed to sexual exploitation of weaker inmates. These "booty bandits" are older, black youths from the ghetto who avoid emotional involvement with their victims and merely use them for their own physical release. (Author)

Family functioning of 411 incarcerated male juvenile delinquents (aged 12-16 years) was studied using the Family Environmental Scale. A typology of family social environments was developed using cluster analysis. Delinquents with the most serious behavioral difficulties come from family environments with few strengths and openly expressed conflict…

The relationship between self-control and role-taking deficits as exhibited by 37 female institutionalized juvenile delinquents was assessed by Chandler's measure of social egocentrism. Subjects, matched on the basis of their scores on the Matching Familiar Figures (MFF) Test, were randomly assigned to treatment or control groups. The treatment…

This paper deals with the training of personnel in the delivery of child-care services to institutionalized Youth. The emphasis is on training personnel in interaction behaviors that are preferred by youth themselves. Two studies are reported. The first determined what types of interactions the youth preferred, and validated these preferences on…

Predicting occurrences of violent behavior in the population of emotionally disturbed criminal offenders was investigated by identifying a pattern of characteristics that significantly discriminates between violent and nonviolent offenders. Subjects were 149 current and former male patients in the Forensics Division of St. Elizabeths Hospital in…