Skip to main content

Advertisement

SpringerLink
Log in

Racial Disparities in Community Mental Health Service Use Among Juvenile Offenders

  • Published:
Journal of Racial and Ethnic Health Disparities Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Purpose

Investigate differences in community mental health service utilization by race among a sample of juvenile offenders in the time surrounding adjudication for a serious offense. It was predicted that racial minority youth would demonstrate lower utilization of these services.

Methods

The Pathways to Desistance data were used in analyses. This consisted of the responses of 1354 juvenile offenders. Wave 1 of the data was used in analyses. Logistic regression models were used to examine the relevance of racial identification and control covariates for predicting odds of receiving community mental health services during the prior 6 months.

Results

Results indicate that Black youth had lower odds of receiving all types of community mental health services, relative to White participants. Hispanic juvenile offenders had lower odds of receiving several types of services also, relative to White juvenile offenders.

Discussion

Findings indicate that minority justice-involved youth utilize community mental health services in the time surrounding adjudication at lower rates than White juvenile offenders do, a net of all effects. This may be indicative of additional barriers to service use and possible institutionalized racism which restrict mandating of services which may reduce mental health symptom severity and risk for recidivism among minority juvenile offenders.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. Gibbons MB, Gallop R, Thompson D, Luther D, et al. Comparative effectiveness of cognitive therapy and dynamic psychotherapy for major depressive disorder in a community mental health setting: a randomized clinical noninferiority trial. JAMA Psychiatry. 2016;73:904–12.

    Article  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  2. Goldbeck L, Muche R, Sachser C, Tutus D, Rosner R. Effectiveness of trauma-focused cognitive behavioral therapy for children and adolescents: a randomized controlled trial in eight German mental health clinics. Psychother Psychosom. 2016;85:159–70.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  3. Ridgely MS, Borum R, Petrila J. The effectiveness of involuntary outpatient treatment: empirical evidence and the experience of eight states. RAND. 2001.

  4. Drake EK. The monetary benefits and costs of community supervision. J Contemp Crim Justice. 2018;34:47–68.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  5. Underwood LA, Washington A. Mental illness and juvenile offenders. Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2016;13:228.

    Article  PubMed Central  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  6. Baglivio MT, Epps N, Swartz K, Huq MS, Sheer A, Hardt NS. The prevalence of adverse childhood experiences (ACE) in the lives of juvenile offenders. Journal of juvenile justice. 2014;3.

  7. Altman CE, Gorman BK, Chávez S. Exposure to violence, coping strategies, and diagnosed mental health problems among adults in a migrant-sending community in Central Mexico. Popul Res Policy Rev. 2018;37:229–60.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  8. American Psychiatric Association. Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders: DSM-5. Washington, D.C: American Psychiatric Association. 2018.

  9. Chen WY, Corvo K, Lee Y, Hahm HC. Longitudinal trajectory of adolescent exposure to community violence and depressive symptoms among adolescents and young adults: understanding the effect of mental health service usage. Community Ment Health J. 2017;53:39–52.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  10. Nicholson-Crotty S, Birchmeier Z, Valentine D. Exploring the impact of school discipline on racial disproportion in the juvenile justice system. Soc Sci Q. 2009;90:1003–18.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  11. Hirschfield PJ. The role of schools in sustaining juvenile justice system inequality. Future Child. 2018;28.

  12. Mallett CA, Stoddard-Dare P. Predicting secure detention placement for African-American juvenile offenders: addressing the disproportionate minority confinement problem. J Ethn Crim Just. 2010;8:91–103.

    Google Scholar 

  13. Puzzanchera C, Adams B, Sickmund M. Juvenile court statistics 2006–2007. Pittsburgh: National Center for Juvenile Justice; 2010.

    Google Scholar 

  14. Puzzanchera C, Robson C. Delinquency cases in juvenile court, 2010. Drugs. 2014;17:18.

    Google Scholar 

  15. Baglivio MT, Wolff KT, Piquero AR, Greenwald MA, Epps N. Racial/ethnic disproportionality in psychiatric diagnoses and treatment in a sample of serious juvenile offenders. J Youth Adolesc. 2017;46:1424–51.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  16. Teplin LA, Abram KM, McClelland GM, Dulcan MK, Mericle AA. Psychiatric disorders in youth in juvenile detention. Arch Gen Psychiatry. 2002;59:1133–43.

    Article  PubMed Central  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  17. Barr DA. Health disparities in the United States: social class, race, ethnicity, and health: JHU Press; 2014.

  18. Jackson JS, Knight KM, Rafferty JA. Race and unhealthy behaviors: chronic stress, the HPA axis, and physical and mental health disparities over the life course. Am J Public Health. 2010;100:933–9.

    Article  PubMed Central  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  19. Chen J, Vargas-Bustamante A, Mortensen K, Ortega AN. Racial and ethnic disparities in health care access and utilization under the affordable care act. Med Care. 2016;54:140–6.

    Article  PubMed Central  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  20. Lopez V, Nuño L. Racial/ethnic differences in mental health and drug treatment among juvenile arrestees. J Crime Justice. 2018;7:1–2.

    Google Scholar 

  21. Garland AF, Landsverk JA, Lau AS. Racial/ethnic disparities in mental health service use among children in foster care. Child Youth Serv Rev. 2003;25:491–507.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  22. Chow JC, Jaffee K, Snowden L. Racial/ethnic disparities in the use of mental health services in poverty areas. Am J Public Health. 2003;93:792–7.

    Article  PubMed Central  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  23. Mental Health: A report of the surgeon general. Rockville, Md: US Dept of Health and Human Services, Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Admin.

  24. Neighbors H, Bashshur R, Price R, et al. Ethnic minority mental health service delivery: a review of the literature. Res Community Ment Health. 1992;7:55–71.

    Google Scholar 

  25. Snowden L. Psychiatric inpatient care and ethnic minority populations. In: Herrera J, Lawson W, Sramek J, editors. Cross cultural psychiatry. New York: Wiley; 1999. p. 261–74.

    Google Scholar 

  26. Sue S, Fujino DC, Hu LT, Takeuchi DT, Zane NWS. Community mental health services for ethnic minority groups: a test of the cultural responsiveness hypothesis. J Consult Clin Psychol. 1991;59:533–40.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  27. Bonadio FT, Tompsett C. Who benefits from community mental health care? Using latent profile analysis to identify differential treatment outcomes for youth. J Youth Adolesc. 2018;4:1–7.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  28. Mulvey, E. P.. Research on pathways to desistance [Maricopa County, AZ and Philadelphia County, PA]: Subject Measures, 2000–2010. ICPSR29961-v2. Ann Arbor, MI: Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research [distributor], 2000–2010. https://doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR29961.v2.

  29. Freiburger TL. Gender disparities, juvenile justice processing. In: The encyclopedia of juvenile delinquency and justice, vol. 2; 2017. p. 1–4.

    Google Scholar 

  30. Derogatis LR, Melisaratos N. The brief symptom inventory: an introductory report. Psychol Med. 1983;13:595–605.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  31. Mersky JP, Janczewski CE. Racial and ethnic differences in the prevalence of adverse childhood experiences: findings from a low-income sample of US women. Child Abuse Negl. 2018;76:480–7.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  32. Cronholm PF, Forke CM, Wade R, Bair-Merritt MH, Davis M, Harkins-Schwarz M, et al. Adverse childhood experiences: expanding the concept of adversity. Am J Prev Med. 2015;49:354–61.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Sociology and Criminology and Law and Society, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, 32611, USA

    Thomas W. Wojciechowski

Authors
  1. Thomas W. Wojciechowski
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Thomas W. Wojciechowski.

Additional information

Publisher’s Note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Wojciechowski, T.W. Racial Disparities in Community Mental Health Service Use Among Juvenile Offenders. J. Racial and Ethnic Health Disparities 6, 393–400 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40615-018-00536-x

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Revised:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s40615-018-00536-x

Keywords

Search

Navigation