Unmet mental health and criminogenic needs among justice-involved young people: a role for clinicians in the community

ABSTRACT

Justice-involved young people experience greater rates of mental illness than their peers in the general population. They also commonly belong to marginalised and disadvantaged groups and/or have histories of significant developmental adversity, amplifying their needs and increasing the likelihood of multi-agency involvement. While most mental disorders are not criminogenic (i.e., they do not cause offending), there is a disproportionate focus on criminogenic aspects of mental illness, to the neglect of the fundamental but unique mental health care needs of this group. Specialised forensic youth mental health services are an essential component of the care of this population. While they exist in some jurisdictions, they are commonly focused upon custodial care settings and/or young people with the most complex/severe presentations. Yet, most justice-involved young people, or those at risk of entering the justice system, live in the community. They do not, or cannot, access community mental health services. In order to improve access to services, we offer recommendations for clinicians working with, or likely to work with, justice-involved young people. In order to improve psychosocial outcomes for justice-involved young people, mental health and criminal justice services must be mutually responsive to both mental health and criminogenic needs of justice-involved young people.

Key Points

What is already known about this topic:

1. Justice-involved young people are at greater risk of mental ill-health and frequently come from disadvantaged backgrounds.

2. Justice-involved young people often do not receive, or are unable to access, the mental healthcare they need.

3. Specialised forensic youth mental health services, where they exist, are primarily focused on high-risk young people or young people in detention.

What this article adds:

1. Community-based clinicians can play a role in filling service gaps and complementing specialist forensic youth mental health services, especially for low- and medium-risk justice-involved young people.

2. Practice recommendations are provided for clinicians working with, or likely to work with, justice-involved young people.

3. Recommendations include utilising trauma-informed care, tailoring treatment to the young person’s cultural and gender identity, adopting the Risk-Need-Responsivity treatment model, and facilitating comprehensive treatment for substance-use disorders and neuropsychological impairment.

KEYWORDS:

• Forensic youth mental health
• justice
• crime
• recidivism
• treatment

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Data availability statement

No original data were produced for this article.

Additional information

Funding

The work was supported by the National Health and Medical Research Council [APP1158881]; University of Melbourne [Dame Kate Campbell Fellowship]