Jäggi Lena, Schmid Marc, Bürgin David, Saladin Nadine, Grob Alexander, Boonmann Cyril
Division of Personality and Developmental Psychology, Department of Psychology, University of Basel, Basel, Switzerland.
Child and Adolescent Psychiatric Research Department, Psychiatric University Hospitals, University of Basel, Wilhelm Klein-Strasse 27, 4002, Basel, Switzerland.
Child Adolesc Psychiatry Ment Health. 2021 Jan 21;15(1):2. doi: 10.1186/s13034-020-00355-1.
Although child welfare youth and juvenile offenders in residential care have different judicial placement reasons, there seems to be overlap in their demographic and psychosocial backgrounds. This could raise the question whether these adolescents should be placed in strictly separated institutions based on their judicial title (civil or criminal law) or together based on their needs. As systematic knowledge on the effects of shared placement of these groups is limited, the aim of the current paper is to examine the demographic, crime-related and psychosocial characteristics of child welfare and juvenile justice youths in shared residential care and subsequently examine its relationship with offending behavior in adulthood.
The sample was drawn from the Swiss study for clarification and goal-attainment in youth welfare and juvenile justice institutions (MAZ.) and consisted 354 juveniles (252 child welfare, 102 juvenile justice; 223 boys, 131 girls) between 10 and 18 years. Mental health problems were assessed with the Massachusetts Youth Screening Instrument-Version 2 (MAYSI-2), official adult criminal conviction data up to 10 years later was obtained from the Swiss Federal Office of Statistics. Three sets of logistic regressions were conducted investigating any, violent and non-violent convictions.
Univariate results showed that that the child welfare sample included more females, more juveniles with the Swiss nationality, and was younger at the time of assessment and at first placement compared to the juvenile justice sample. Furthermore, child welfare youths showed less alcohol/drug use problems and offending behavior than their juvenile justice counterparts. Unadjusted models demonstrated that committing authority predicted adult criminal convictions, but that this distinction disappeared when it was controlled for demographic, crime-related and psychosocial factors. Gender and time at risk were found to be related to adult conviction in all three models. In addition, alcohol/drug use problems were risk factors for general, previous convictions for violent, and traumatic experiences for non-violent convictions in adulthood.
Our results support the approach of placement in residential care institutions based on treatment needs instead of on judicial title. Special attention should be devoted to trauma informed care and substance use coping. However, more research is needed.
尽管儿童福利机构中的青少年和寄宿照料机构中的少年犯有不同的司法安置原因，但他们的人口统计学和心理社会背景似乎存在重叠。这可能会引发一个问题，即这些青少年是应根据其司法身份（民法或刑法）被安置在严格分开的机构中，还是应根据他们的需求安置在一起。由于关于这些群体共同安置效果的系统知识有限，本文的目的是研究共同寄宿照料中儿童福利机构和少年司法机构青少年的人口统计学、犯罪相关及心理社会特征，并随后研究其与成年后犯罪行为的关系。
样本取自瑞士青少年福利和少年司法机构的澄清与目标达成研究（MAZ.），包括354名10至18岁的青少年（252名儿童福利机构青少年，102名少年司法机构青少年；223名男孩，131名女孩）。使用马萨诸塞州青少年筛查工具第二版（MAYSI-2）评估心理健康问题，从瑞士联邦统计局获取了截至10年后的官方成年刑事定罪数据。进行了三组逻辑回归分析，调查任何定罪、暴力定罪和非暴力定罪情况。
单变量结果显示，与少年司法机构样本相比，儿童福利机构样本中女性更多，拥有瑞士国籍的青少年更多，在评估时和首次安置时年龄更小。此外，儿童福利机构的青少年比少年司法机构的青少年表现出更少的酒精/药物使用问题和犯罪行为。未调整的模型表明，安置机构能预测成年后的刑事定罪，但在控制了人口统计学、犯罪相关和心理社会因素后，这种差异消失了。在所有三个模型中，性别和处于风险中的时间与成年定罪有关。此外，酒精/药物使用问题是成年后一般定罪、先前暴力定罪以及非暴力定罪创伤经历的风险因素。
我们的结果支持基于治疗需求而非司法身份安置在寄宿照料机构的方法。应特别关注创伤知情护理和物质使用应对。然而，还需要更多研究。
