Today we had the pleasure of hearing Professor Linda Teplin speak on ‘Psychiatric Disorders and Related Outcomes in Delinquent Youth’.
Professor Teplin is the Vice Chair of Research and the Owen L. Coon Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioural Sciences in the Medical School at Northwestern University in Chicago, Illinois. She is one of the most prominent researchers in the area of mental health of youth in the juvenile justice system. In the 1990s, Professor Teplin established the Northwestern Juvenile Project (which was the focus of today’s presentation), the first large-scale longitudinal study of mental health needs and outcomes of delinquent youth after detention. Results from her studies have provided the empirical basis for changes in juvenile justice and mental health policy.
NORTHWESTERN JUVENILE PROJECT
The Northwestern Juvenile Project is a prospective longitudinal study of health needs and outcomes of a stratified random sample of 1829 youth (657 females, 1172 males; 524 Hispanic, 1005 African American, 296 non-Hispanic white, 4 other race/ethnicity) detained between 1995 and 1998, from Chicago, USA.
Data on risk factors were drawn from interviews; death records were obtained up to 16 years after detention. Prof Teplin and her team compared all-cause mortality rates and causes of death with those of the general population. Delinquent youth have higher mortality rates than the general population to age 29 years (P , .05), irrespective of gender or race/ethnicity. Females died at nearly 5 times the general population rate (P , .05); Hispanic males and females died at 5 and 9 times the general population rates, respectively (P , .05). Compared with the general population, significantly more delinquent youth died of homicide and its subcategory, homicide by firearm (P , .05). Among delinquent youth, racial/ethnic minorities were at increased risk of homicide compared with non-Hispanic whites (P , .05). Significant risk factors for external cause mortality and homicide included drug dealing (up to 9 years later), alcohol use disorder, and gang membership (up to a decade later).
WHAT’S KNOWN ON THIS SUBJECT: Homicide is the third leading cause of mortality in the general US population youth aged 15 to 29 years. Groups at greatest risk for early violent death (racial/ ethnic minorities, males, poor persons, and urban youth) are over-represented in the juvenile justice system.
WHAT THIS STUDY ADDS: Prof Teplin and her team examined rates of and risk factors for firearm homicide and other causes of death in delinquents 16 years after detention. Their study analysed gender differences; compares Hispanics, African Americans, and non-Hispanic whites; and includes a representative sample of delinquents.
Last minute reminder:
This Friday, the 28 October at the Royal Children’s Hospital in Melbourne, the Murdoch Childrens Research Institute is hosting a ‘Youth Justice Health Symposium’. Read the full program here, further information can be found online at www.mcri.edu.au/youth-justice-event. The following speakers have been confirmed. You can follow along on twitter using #YJhealth.
- Professor Linda Teplin: Owen L. Coon Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, and Director of the Health Disparities and Public Policy Program in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Northwestern University
- Professor Kerry Arabena: Chair of Indigenous Health, Director, Indigenous Health Equity Unit, Melbourne School of Population and Global Health, University of Melbourne
- Professor Pamela Snow: Head of the La Trobe Rural Health School, Latrobe University
- Professor Stuart Kinner: Griffith Criminology Institute & Menzies Health Institute Queensland, Griffith University
- Mr Ian Lanyon: Director – Secure Services, Victorian Department of Health and Human Services
Interested in Youth Justice and would like to know more? Click on the publications below to read some of Linda’s work.
