Int J Law Psychiatry. 2025 Apr 25;101:102099. doi: 10.1016/j.ijlp.2025.102099. Online ahead of print.
ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: Mental health disorders and adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) are known risk factors for youth offending. However, most studies operationalize these factors as static and fail to distinguish between isolated reoffences and escalating patterns of criminal behaviour. The impact of mental health service engagement on interrupting cyclical, repetitive offending also remains unclear.
METHODS: We linked offending records (1994-2022) and mental health records (2001-2022) for 1556 justice-involved youth in New South Wales, Australia. The Prentice, Williams, and Peterson Gap Time model with time-varying effects was used to identify factors associated with accelerated reoffending during a five-year follow-up.
RESULTS: The median age at first conviction was 15 years for custody-supervised youth and 16 years for community-supervised youth. Among custody-supervised youth aged 14 to 17, the prevalence of ACEs, mental health disorders, and their co-occurrence were 69.6 %, 33.9 %, and 26.5 %, respectively, compared to 42.5 %, 30.8 %, and 14.8 % for community-supervised youth. Recurrent offences occurred in 64.8 % of custody-supervised youth and 52.1 % of community-supervised youth. Age, physical neglect, substance use disorders, and personality disorders demonstrated time-varying effects on reoffending risk. Additional risk factors included physical abuse, parental death, anxiety disorders, mood disorders, and previous incarceration. Mental health service contact was associated with reduced reoffending risk.
CONCLUSIONS: This study demonstrates the dynamic nature of criminogenic risk factors and the protective effect of mental health service engagement. Youth justice policymakers should prioritize regular mental health assessments and improved access to interventions for justice-involved youth to reduce recurrent offending and enhance public safety.
PMID:40286634 | DOI:10.1016/j.ijlp.2025.102099
