A Study of Criminal History among Young Adults with Co-occurring Mental Health and Substance Use Disorders in Psychiatry Outpatient

ABSTRACT

The goal of this study was to examine risk/protective factors to criminality in an adolescent population. Retrospective chart review was utilized to gather data on psychiatric history, substance use, and criminality among adolescent patients within a psychiatric outpatient clinic at a university school of medicine. An earlier age of psychiatric diagnosis and comorbid substance use was found to be a marked risk factor for criminality, whereas female gender and education were shown to be protective factors. These findings can aid in intervention strategies targeted at adolescents who are most at risk for criminality.

KEYWORDS:

• Youth
• substance use
• mental illness
• justice system
• criminality
• incarceration
• arrest

Acknowledgments

This study was done with the Department of Psychiatry, Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center. We would like to acknowledge the statistical and technical support of the TTUHSC Clinical Research Institute, specifically Drs Eneko Larumbe and Rohali Keesari.

Disclosure statement

The authors report no conflicts of interest. There have been no previous publications of this research or collected data. This study was approved by the Institutional Review Board of Texas Tech University.