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Psychology and Psychiatry.
The most surprising finding from the 20-year study, conducted by
researchers from the Université de Montréal and University of Genoa, was
how help provided by the juvenile justice system substantially increased
the risk of the boys engaging in criminal activities during early
adulthood.
"For boys who had been through the
juvenile justice system, compared to boys with similar histories without
judicial involvement, the odds of adult judicial interventions increased
almost seven-fold," says study co-author Richard E. Tremblay, a
professor of psychology, pediatrics and psychiatry at the Université de
Montréal and a researcher at the Sainte-Justine University Hospital
Research Center.
The research team sought out boys from
kindergarten who were at risk for delinquent behavior and who were
enrolled at 53 schools from the poorest neighbourhoods in Montreal. Some
779 participants were interviewed annually from the age of 10 until 17
years. By their mid-20s, some 17.6 percent of participants ended up with
adult criminal records for infractions that included homicide (17.9
percent); arson (31.2 percent); prostitution (25.5 percent); drug
possession (16.4 percent) and impaired driving (8.8 percent).
"The more intense the help given by
the juvenile justice system, the greater was its negative impact," Dr.
Tremblay stresses. "Our findings take on even greater importance given
that the juvenile justice system in the province of Quebec has the
reputation of being among the best. Most countries spend considerable
financial resources to fund programs and institutions that group deviant
youths together in order to help them. The problem is that delinquent
behavior is contagious, especially among adolescents. Putting deviant
adolescents together creates a culture of deviance, which increases the
likelihood of continued criminal behavior."
"Two solutions exist for this
problem," adds Dr Tremblay. "The first is to implement prevention
programs before adolescence when problem children are more responsive.
The second is to minimize the concentration of problem youths in
juvenile justice programs, thereby reducing the risk of peer contagion."
About the Study
The article, "Iatrogenic effect
of juvenile justice," published in the Journal of Child Psychology and
Psychiatry, was authored by Uberto Gatti of the University of Genoa,
(Italy) and Richard E. Tremblay and Frank Vitaro of the Université de
Montréal / Sainte-Justine University Hospital Research Center (Canada).
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