The use of mental health-related intake assessments by juvenile correctional facilities as predictive measures of confinement behavior has seen limited use in recent years. This study employs the Massachusetts Youth Screening Instrument-Version 2 (MAYSI-2) and How I Think Questionnaire (HIT) as measurement tools on the same data set to assess the…

The current article explores the possible selves, or future expectations, of 543 incarcerated juvenile offenders in four Western states in the United States. We argue that juveniles who are able to articulate future expectations and fears and generate concrete strategies for achieving their goals have higher levels of motivational capital (i.e.,…

Objective: While the relationship between abusive parenting and violent delinquency has been well established, the cognitive and emotional processes by which this occurs remain relatively unidentified. The objective of this work is to apply a conceptual model linking abusive parenting to the conversion of shame into blaming others and therefore to…

This study investigated the sensitivity and specificity of the most widely used mental health screening instrument in juvenile detention, the Massachusetts Youth Screening Instrument (MAYSI-2), for detecting trauma and symptoms of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) among detained youth. The MAYSI-2 scales measuring Substance Use,…

Background: Delinquent youth with callous-unemotional (CU) traits may have a unique social-cognitive processing pattern that perpetuates their violent behavior. The current study examined the association between CU traits and the endorsement of deviant social goals during peer conflicts as well as expectancies and values regarding victim suffering…

The current study modeled trajectories of substance use from ages 15 to 20 among 1,095 male serious juvenile offenders (M age = 16.54; 42% African-American, 34% Latino, 20% European-American, and 4% other ethnic/racial backgrounds) and prospectively predicted trajectories from risk and protective factors before and after controlling for time spent…

The present study examines the reliability and construct validity of the Dutch version of the Psychopathy Check List: Youth Version (PCL:YV) in a sample of male adolescents admitted to a secure juvenile justice treatment institution (N = 98). Hare's four-factor model is used to examine reliability and validity of the separate dimensions of…

Background: Although juveniles within the justice system have high psychiatric morbidity, few comprehensive investigations have shown posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in female delinquents. Here, we aim to describe the nature and extent of PTSD and trauma exposure and to clarify the relationships among comorbidity and psychosocial factors in…

Two groups of male adolescents, incarcerated young offenders (N = 64, mean age = 16.3 years) and a comparison group of community youth (N = 60; mean age = 16.6 years), were administered the Empathy Continuum (measuring cognitive-affective responses to persons in emotionally evocative videotaped vignettes) and questionnaire measures of empathy,…

A sample of 302 juveniles confined in two separate correctional facilities in a Western plains state was assessed to examine the relationship between child maltreatment and other delinquency risk factors, and Native American ethnicity on perceptions of the institutional environments and psychological adjustment in a boot camp and traditional…

In this paper, the Adolescent Sexual Abuser Project (ASAP) assessment pack-Dutch Revised Version (ASAP-D) is presented. The ASAP-D is an assessment instrument which measures the personality characteristics that are generally considered relevant in the literature for the development and perpetuation of sexually abusive behaviour in juveniles. After…