The current study examines the prevalence and severity of psychiatric symptoms in incarcerated youth. A random sample of youth ages 13-17 who were referred for mental health services (n = 120) and not referred for services (n = 120) at a juvenile detention facility were studied. Psychopathology was evaluated using the Diagnostic Interview Schedule for Children and the Child Behavior Checklist. Ninety-six percent of referred youth and 69% of non-referred youth had one or more psychiatric diagnoses. Co-morbidity was common in both groups. The findings suggest that youths in the juvenile justice system have noteworthy psychopathology that often remains unidentified.

No description available.

This research was focused on analyzing and interpreting the U.S. Supreme Court’s holdings in several cases that directly affect the juvenile justice system and the sentencing process of youth offenders. Drawing primarily from Miller v. Alabama (2012) and the Supreme Court’s ‘Miller doctrine’, this thesis goes against the viewpoints of many policymakers, arguing that life without parole and mandatory adult sentence minimums for youth offenders are ‘cruel and unusual’ punishments that are unconstitutional as sentencing options for a juvenile offender. In order to arrive at the conclusion that the aforementioned punishments violate a youth’s 8th Amendment right to a proportional sentence, this thesis drew from previously unavailable research in modern neuroscience that substantiates the Supreme Court’s claim that “Children are different” on a developmental basis and thus, can never possess the same degree of culpability for a crime as an adult offender. If one accepts the conclusions made in this thesis, it is a matter only of when, not if, the sentencing process for youth offenders experiences a paradigm shift on a legislative level, and becomes a much more efficient and successful process where rehabilitation becomes the foremost goal. If science and developmental psychology support the Supreme Court’s assertion that nearly all juvenile crime-activity is the result of “transient immaturity,” then why are 16 year olds being sentenced to life without the possibility of parole? This thesis explores the possible answers to this question, and anticipates the possible impediments to national changes in juvenile sentencing procedures.

published_or_final_version / Sociology / Master / Master of Social Sciences

No abstract available. / Thesis (LL.M.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 2008.

No description available.

As a growing field of research, neuroscience receives more and more attention from lay people as well as professionals in various contexts. This ESRC funded dissertation investigates how neuroscientific research findings influence juvenile justice practice in Scotland. The study concentrates on the aspect of aggressive behaviour in children and young people. The thesis begins by reviewing juvenile justice practice in Scotland. This is followed by an overview of key neuroscientific research findings possibly relevant for juvenile justice practice. Further context for this dissertation is provided by a review of the theoretical frameworks for understanding how practitioners use knowledge with particular reference to knowledge production and transdisciplinarity in social work. The thesis then moves on to an empirical analysis, based on a case study approach employing qualitivative data collection methods in addition to a discourse analysis of relevant neuroscientific research publications. The empirical chapters explore different aspects and perspectives of the process, by which neuroscientific research findings move from a scientific paper to juvenile justice practice. The conceptualisation of aggressive behaviour in the different social worlds of juvenile justice practice and in neuroscientific research publications is examined, and aggressive behaviour is identified as a boundary object that spans the analysed social worlds. The perspective of training providers and practitioners on the utilised neuroscientific knowledge is explored. The conceptualisation of neuroscience is then placed in the context of the day-­‐‑to-­‐‑day realities of juvenile justice practice, with the aim of understanding how this knowledge potentially changes practitioners’ perspectives towards service users. The knowledge utilisation process is investigated, with focus on the different actors and their roles in a context of transdisciplinarity in juvenile justice practice. In conclusion, the thesis provides recommendations for knowledge providers, practitioners, policymakers and academics by considering ways of improving a critical perspective on knowledge from other disciplines; encouraging training providers and practitioners to become more active participants in this knowledge utilisation process; and by including the need for working environments where active knowledge utilisation is integrated in the work place.

Conferencing is a Restorative Justice practice operating in juvenile justice systems in Australia. Some conferences are convened by police, despite research demonstrating that ethnic minority youth often view police as biased or untrustworthy. Justice research in evaluative legal procedures indicates that perceived third party bias and outcomes delivered by a third party affect fairness judgments. Many disputants regard conferences as more fair than court. However, psychological mechanisms underlying fairness judgments in conferences, where offenders participate in outcome decisions, have not been directly investigated. This research program examined the effects of outcome and perceived convenor bias on procedural and distributive justice ratings in conferencing. Past research indicates that people high and low on Hofstede??s power-distance dimension differ in their emphases on outcome and third party bias when forming fairness judgments. This thesis investigated whether power-distance moderated the interactive effect of trust and outcome on fairness judgments in conferences. Study 1 established power-distance variation in a university sample, and similarity with a community sample on perceived police bias. Study 2 confirmed that high power-distance people who consider police biased against them may nonetheless choose to participate in police-convened conferences. Studies 3 and 4 extended previous research examining interactive effects of trust and outcome on justice judgments in evaluative procedures, investigating whether power-distance moderated this effect. No significant effects of power-distance and trust emerged, but the findings demonstrated the importance of outcome fairness (correspondence between outcomes and beliefs) in determining procedural justice. Studies 5, 6 and 7 extended this investigation to conferencing procedures. Studies 6 and 7 employed a computer-simulation, allowing participants to interact with a conference transcript and select outcomes, thereby investigating the effects of trust and power-distance on outcome choice, as well as the effects of trust, power-distance, and outcome on justice evaluations. Studies 5 and 6 were unsuccessful in manipulating bias by varying convenor identity (police versus civilian). Study 7 successfully manipulated bias according to convenor behaviour and revealed that third party bias in conferencing affected outcome choices but not fairness judgments. Results are discussed in terms of implications for culturally-relevant police practices, procedural justice theory and conferencing policy.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Chicago, Dept. of History, June 1997. / Includes bibliographical references. Also available on the Internet.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Washington, 2000. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 205-215).