Never lived together. 6. One or both parents had died. 10. Don't know who parents are. 1. Social factors for custody and community samples (%). Male. Female.
Mental and physical health issues in young incarcerated indigenous offenders
Adverse environmental and personal characteristics interact in complex ways to determine specified end behaviours
Most juvenile offenders are exposed to a variety of risk factors
Wide variability in individual profiles – but some commonalites on which to base rehabilitation efforts
No one meta-theory of juvenile offending
Professor Dianna Kenny The University of Sydney
Core Model includes The most comprehensive report on young offenders in Australia – compares young offenders on community orders and young offenders in custody with normative adolescent population data, where possible
Distal static precursors
Proximal Dynamic Precursors
Offending
(type and context)
Published April 2008
Recidivism
Physical
MEASURES
Questionnaire
Health Psychological
Infectious diseases Psychosocial history (BBV & STIs) Depression Chronic & recent illnessSuicide/Self-harm Medication PTSD Disability Intellectual functioning Injury
Young People in Custody Health Survey (YPiCHS) (N=242)
Social
Standardised tests
Behavioural
History of Care (DoCS) Drug use School history Gambling Parental incarceration Smoking Sexual behaviour
Young People on Community Orders Health Survey (YPoCOHS) (N=800) One year follow up of 25% (N=212) in 2006 Self-report
Health
Two population surveys of young offenders in NSW
Objective testing – blood and urine tests
Interview
Official records
1
Ethnicity
Gender
66
ESB A&TSI CALD
SURVEY Males comprise majority of all offender populations nationally and internationally Our sample: Males 85%; Females 15% Similar percentages across other DJJ jurisdictions in Australia
19
% CALD offenders in offender population is similar to community population but ethnic distribution is different
Geographic location
15
Indigenous young offenders on community orders=30% Indigenous population ≈ 2.4%
Parental relationship
77 Metro Regional Rural
Indigenous:
Biological parents of male offenders
30
Separated or divorced
52
One or both parents had died
12
43%-regional
Living together
Never lived together
11
30%-urban
Don't know who parents are
27%-remote
%
6 10 1
Social factors for custody and community samples (%) Male
Lifetime sex partners
Female
Custody
Community
Custody
Community
Deceased parent
10
10
6
4
9
History of parental imprisonment
42
25
50
39
27
Parent currently in prison
10
4
22
10
5
History of care
28
22
39
35
23
Not living in family home prior to custody/survey
36
35
7
48
36
Parent of one or more children
11
5
6
9
6
Has close friends to talk to
70
91
82
89
90
Lives with person who has a physical or mental health problem affecting their daily life
19
20
17
29
21
Social Indicator
Comm. Total
2
Physical injury
that resulted in a period of unconsciousness
Head injury 50
78% males and 58% females had sustained an injury requiring professional medical treatment
40 30
Most common perpetrator of injuries against males was a stranger
20 10 0 Males
Psychometric testing
COGNITIVE and ACADEMIC ABILITY and SCHOOL EXPERIENCE
Wechsler Abbreviated Scale of Intelligence (WASI)
Educational history (%)
Mean age left school (years)
15% completed yr 10
Not attending school
Cognitive functioning (Verbal, Performance, Full Scale IQ)
Wechsler Individual Achievement Test (WIAT II-A)
25% left school before completing yr 8
Females
Basic academic skills and needs (reading, spelling, numerical ability)
GATSB
Cognitive ability
Males
Average WASI Full Scale IQ (FSIQ) score for young people in custody = 82; community = 84
Female
Custody
Community
Custody
Community
14.5 yrs
15.0 yrs
14.6
14.6 yrs
81
82
83
83
Left in Year 8 or earlier
22
Left in Year 9
26
Left in Year 10
16
26
27
31
Left in Year 11
8
9
0
4
Left in Year 12
1
4
0
2
Suspended from school
90
90
100
84
Attended special school/class
39
38
50
31
69% (25% standardisation sample) scored below the average range.
3
WASI subscales
WIAT average score
Community
Custody
Word Reading
85
82
Numerical Operations
66
65
Spelling
84
79
Composite Scaled Score
77
75
All results >1 SD below the expected norm for subscales 1.5 SD below expected norms for overall academic achievement (CSS)
Numerical ability
WIAT composite scores by region 52% rural male offenders have an ID
70 60
Percent
50 40
Custody
30
Community
20 10 0 69 and below
70-79
80-89
90-109
110-119 120-129 130 and above
WIAT-II-A Numerical ability standard scores
WIAT composite scores by ethnicity More than half Indigenous offenders score in ID range
Intellectual Disability (ID) Estimates 15% WASI FSIQ scores consistent with DSM-IV
criteria for ID Diagnosis requires tests of cognitive and adaptive
functioning 11% scored < 70 on both WASI Full Scale IQ and
WIAT-II-A Composite Standard Score
4
What do young offenders think of their school experience?
Racism
“It’s (school is) bullshit … I can’t even read or write … if they teached me I’d know how to read and write … they let me go all the way to Year 8 … if you can’t read or write, how you s’posed to do school work?”
“Racism … makes me explode … I wanna hurt that person who’s being racist … smash their heads in.” Strong ethnic group cohesion promoted violence: “There were only five Asians there [at school]… the rest are Fobs… Islanders … I and the Islanders would fight each other all the time … there were always poles and knives… I was suspended for knives”.
Consequences of bullying
Institutional insensitivity
“I stabbed this kid … he was bashin’ me … my next door neighbours, a whole bunch of us, we used to play and that … ‘cause I was the youngest one they used to pick on me … so I got sick of it … went home and got a knife and I fuckin’ jabbed him a coupla times … in the hand … and the stomach … heaps of coppers come … they gave me a caution ‘cause I was young … round nine, ten”.
Lack of educational opportunity “Like there’s six boys limited to a class … there’s only three classes running … there’s probably around 32 detainees and a majority of those don’t get to go to school … for the people that want to be in programs and get educated more, they don’t really have a good chance of getting educated in a place like this”.
“The other day … my parents came all the way up here to visit me … they weren’t allowed in to visit me ‘cause I was locked down … I cried ‘cause I felt fuckin’ bad that my parents came all the way up and they weren’t allowed in”. “ I was stressing out, missing my family, the phone system was down, I hadn’t been able to talk to my family for four days, there were no cigarettes, I’m on antidepressants … I didn’t get my medication because the nurse was away sick … I felt suicidal”.
Shame
“Just knowing that I’ve been here … locked up in a boy’s detention centre … what are me brothers and sisters gonna think?”
5
Dreams of a better future
“I’ve quitted it all now … it’s just not worth it … when I get out I’m going to be making money legit … ‘cause I know fi I don’t I’m just gonna end up in here … behind bars for the rest of my life”.
On the wrong side of the law, but dreams of the white picket fence live on
“I don’t want to spend the rest of my life like this … I don’t want to spend the rest of my life locked up in a cage … I gotta think about going to uni, doing a trade … get out with a better education than what I had when I come in”.
YOUNG offenders have high rates of substance abuse, hepatitis C infection and learning difficulties - but they share the same hopes and dreams as other people of their age…
Jordan Baker Chief Police Reporter SMH March 15, 2008
…the house with a picket fence
More than half reported feeling "delighted, pleased or mostly satisfied" with their lives. Professor Dianna Kenny, who ran the study with the Department of Juvenile Justice and Justice Health, said many "wanted the house with a picket fence, the family, the job". However "given their current functioning and skill, they were quite unlikely to achieve [them]".
Mental Health
Psychopathology
Mental health
Psychopathology based on DSM-IV criteria, socialemotional problems and competencies
Childhood Trauma Questionnaire (CTQ)
Custody Sample (%)
Adolescent Psychopathology Scale – Short Form
History of emotional and physical abuse and neglect, and sexual abuse (5 scales).
APS SEVERE
Male
Community Sample (%)
Female
Male
Female
Conduct Disorder
24
22
19
20
Substance Abuse Disorder
27
44
26
29
Any clinical disorder
48
61
39
45
Kessler-10
Assesses psychological distress (anxiety/depression)
6
Kessler-10 Mental Health Outcomes
50
43
40
40% reported symptoms consistent with a clinical disorder
13% reported symptoms in severe range consistent with two or more disorders
Comorbid Substance Abuse Disorder and Conduct Disorder = 8%
Percent
30
34
36
28 23 17
20
12
10
6
0 Low
Moderate High K-10 Scores
Very high
a Males = 665; Females = 113; Total = 778
25% high and very high // population norm = 11-12%
ABUSE AND NEGLECT
Suicide and self-harm
Compared with adolescent population
Suicidal ideation was lower Self-harm was higher
9% had attempted suicide; 5% in past year
17% had self-harmed; 9% in past year
Smoking SUBSTANCE USE
81% currently smoke
Average age for commencing: 12 yrs
27% commenced at age 10 or younger
7
Alcohol
Frequency of alcohol use in past 12 months
Average age of first consuming alcohol was 13.5 years for males & females
Age alcohol onset
YPoCOHSa
10 or less
14
11 to 13
36
30% males and 36% females were binge drinking weekly or more frequently in year prior to survey
Daily Weekly Less than weekly
50
14 or more
Never
YPoCOHSa
Comparisonb
4.6 41.5
26.6
45.1
42.2
8.8
27.7
0.7
Source: National Drug Strategy Household Survey, 2004, Table 3.9, Age group 14-19, Australia (data was collapsed to correspond with comparison source)
Males a
b
a
b
a
b
*multiple responses permitted
Community
Custody
Community
Custody
Community
Custody
Cannabis
89 44 38
88 46 34
89 57 45
88 59 35
89 46 39
88 47 34
Amphetamine Ecstasy / other amphetamine Cocaine Heroin Benzodiazepines
17 13
20 17
23 20
29 47
18 14
21 20
11 Other (e.g. steroid+anaesthetic) 11 Hallucinogens 11 Solvents or inhalants 7 Any drug (above) 88
12 14 13 10
26 17 13 10
12 35 18 29
13 12 11 7
12 15 13 12
90
87
100
88
91
Age & year left school and substance abuse
Mean substance abuse disorder t-score
90 Age left school Year left school
Number of social disadvantage indicators
Therapeutic focus
Aggression is a biologically based response to subjectively perceived endangerment
If there is aggression, there is, by definition, threat
Because response to endangerment is prewired but arising in a subjectively constructed world, aggression is never simply reducible to external causes
80
70
60
50
40 12
history of care not living in family home
Total
Females
13
14
15
16
17
18
Age left school (yrs)
7
8
9
10
11
12
Year left school
Socially isolated
Drug type
parental imprisonment
Parent of one or more children Lives with a person with a disability
Substance abuse and social disadvantage
Self Reported Drug Use
8
Therapeutic focus
If aggression is a reaction to empathic failure, deprivation, frustration and disappointment, aggression should not be the primary therapeutic focus (as it is in anger management, behavioural management and CBT programs)
Attention shifts to the traumatizing conditions that precede aggression – the hurt, anxieties, betrayals and disappointments – that are the predisposing factors
FIN
9
