Gender Differences in Mental Health Challenges among Justice-Involved Youth: A qualitative examination

• In Event: Justice Involved Youth, Young Adults & Mental Health Issues

Abstract

Research suggests that adolescent female offenders experience more mental health challenges than their adolescent male counterparts (Teplin et al., 2006). However, how mental health challenges such as anxiety, depression, and self-harming behavior may contribute to criminal justice involvement, and whether or not these mechanisms are gendered, has not been thoroughly investigated. Consequently, we performed a thematic analysis of 40 in-depth interviews that were conducted with 20 female and 20 male adolescent offenders from central Canada. In sum, the results confirm that female youth do experience more mental health challenges than their male counterparts. Additionally, the results indicate that the intersection of mental health challenges and criminogenic needs (“crime causing risk factors”) is indeed gendered. Implications for theories of female criminal conduct as well as the assessment and treatment of adolescent female offenders are discussed.

Authors

• Shelley L. Brown, Carleton University

• Tracey Skilling, Centre for Addiction and Mental Health