Arrest Patterns Among Youth in Mental Health Systems

描述（由申请人提供）：尽管在公共儿童心理健康系统（CMH人口）的慢性使用者中，进入青年期的逮捕率极高，但对这种犯罪的细节知之甚少。针对这一人群的有针对性的预防犯罪工作将是有益的，因为他们的被捕率很高，而且由于他们的系统参与，预防工作可以接触到他们。本研究将在CMH人群中检查个人纵向逮捕模式（犯罪生涯）到25岁的一生。本研究将描述这些犯罪生涯及其相关性，检查标准MH治疗对他们的影响，并直接比较CMH和非CMH一般罪犯的犯罪生涯，所有这些都在性别范围内。这将为政策制定者提供有关谁犯罪以及何时引导青年走向或远离的实践的知识，以及决定基于一般人群犯罪学文献的实践是否适用于CMH人群的基础。以下是本研究的具体目的。1. 在一项全州范围的研究中，描述不同的个体纵向骤停模式，并确定其在CMH人群中的个人、家庭和社会环境相关性。2. 检查标准保健服务对保健人口中25岁的司法系统参与模式的影响。3. 比较25岁时的逮捕模式，在儿童心理健康系统中的青少年和一般犯罪人群中的青少年之间。这些地区将在拟议的研究中使用一个数据库进行调查，该数据库结合了两个全州范围的行政数据库和人口普查区信息，以生成个人的人口统计、临床、家庭和社区特征，完整的终身逮捕史，并为马萨诸塞州精神卫生部门的青少年病例管理客户使用关键的精神卫生服务。它还将包含人口统计和社区特征，以及匹配的普通罪犯样本的终身逮捕史。我们的方法结合了犯罪学和心理健康服务研究的方法和观点，为了解CMH青少年的犯罪生涯提供了一个坚实的平台，并指导未来在这个被忽视的领域的研究。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Despite extremely high arrest rates into young adulthood among chronic users of public child mental health systems (CMH population) little is known about the details of this offending. Targeted crime prevention efforts with this population would be beneficial because their arrest rate is high and they are accessible for prevention efforts by virtue of their system involvement. This study will examine lifetime within-individual longitudinal arrest patterns (criminal careers) to age 25 in the CMH population. This study will describe these criminal careers and their correlates, examine the impact of standard MH treatments on them, and directly compare criminal careers of CMH and non-CMH general offenders, all within gender. This will provide policymakers with knowledge about who offends, and when, practices to steer youth towards or away from, and a basis from which to decide whether practices based in the criminology literature of the general population applies well to the CMH population. The following are the Specific Aims of this study. 1. In a statewide study, describe different within-individual longitudinal arrest patterns and identify their individual, family, and socio-environmental correlates within the CMH population. 2. Examine the impact of standard MH services on justice system involvement patterns to the age of 25 among those in the CMH population. 3. Compare arrest patterns to the age of 25, between youth in the Child Mental Health System and youth in the general offending population. These areas will be investigated in the proposed study using a database that combines two statewide administrative data bases and Census tract information to generate individuals' demographic, clinical, family, and neighborhood characteristics, full lifetime arrest histories, and use of key mental health services for adolescent case management clients of the Massachusetts Department of Mental Health. It will also contain demographic and neighborhood characteristics, and lifetime arrest histories of a matched sample of general offenders. Our approach, which mixes the methods and perspectives of criminology and mental health services research, provides a solid platform for learning about the criminal careers of CMH youth, and guiding future research in this much-neglected area.