Race, Substance Abuse, and Mental Health Disorders as Predictors of Juvenile Court Outcomes: Do They Vary By Gender?
Race, Substance Abuse, and Mental Health Disorders as Predictors of Juvenile Court Outcomes: Do They Vary By Gender?
University of Nebraska- Omaha
Welch-Brewer, Stoddard-Dare, Mallett’s (2011) article, Race, Substance Abuse, and Mental Health Disorders as Predictors of Juvenile Court Outcomes: Do They Vary By Gender?, focuses on male and females participation with the correctional system due to their race, if they have had or currently have any substance abuse, and had or still have mental health problems and compares the two different genders. The exact question that was being researched in this article is: “Do race, substance abuse, and mental health disorders influence number of court offenses, felony conviction(s), probation supervision length, detention length, and number of probation services differently for male and female juvenile offenders?” (pp. 231-232).
This study uses 341 delinquent youth from a Midwestern urban county at random to participate in the research (p. 229). The county was selected by having the highest number of juvenile offenders in that Midwestern urban area. This study was over a three year time period during the years of 2006 through 2008. There was about 6,900 probation cases used in the study (p. 232). The court in this county provided the court files to further research the study. They used the juveniles’ “court history, probation supervision cases files and the mental health assessments for the youth that was selected to be studied” (p. 232). Three different independent variables were being studied such as race, substance abuse, and mental health disorders.
“The main goal was to detect the influence of race, substance abuse, and mental health disorders and how it reflected the selected juvenile’s history with the court system to determine if gender had a different effect on them” (p. 238). Many different findings were discovered in the research. Things such as: “26% of both females and males met the
University of Nebraska- Omaha
Welch-Brewer, Stoddard-Dare, Mallett’s (2011) article, Race, Substance Abuse, and Mental Health Disorders as Predictors of Juvenile Court Outcomes: Do They Vary By Gender?, focuses on male and females participation with the correctional system due to their race, if they have had or currently have any substance abuse, and had or still have mental health problems and compares the two different genders. The exact question that was being researched in this article is: “Do race, substance abuse, and mental health disorders influence number of court offenses, felony conviction(s), probation supervision length, detention length, and number of probation services differently for male and female juvenile offenders?” (pp. 231-232).
This study uses 341 delinquent youth from a Midwestern urban county at random to participate in the research (p. 229). The county was selected by having the highest number of juvenile offenders in that Midwestern urban area. This study was over a three year time period during the years of 2006 through 2008. There was about 6,900 probation cases used in the study (p. 232). The court in this county provided the court files to further research the study. They used the juveniles’ “court history, probation supervision cases files and the mental health assessments for the youth that was selected to be studied” (p. 232). Three different independent variables were being studied such as race, substance abuse, and mental health disorders.
“The main goal was to detect the influence of race, substance abuse, and mental health disorders and how it reflected the selected juvenile’s history with the court system to determine if gender had a different effect on them” (p. 238). Many different findings were discovered in the research. Things such as: “26% of both females and males met the
Cited: Welch-Brewer, C.L., Stoddard-Dare, P., & Mallett, C.A. (2011). Race, Substance Abuse, and Mental Health Disorders as Predictors of Juvenile Court Outcomes: Do They Vary By Gender. Child & Adolescent Social Work Journal. Jun2011, Vol. 28 Issue 3, p229-241. 13p.