TY  - JOUR
PY  - 2000//
TI  - Comparison of mental health and legal factors in the disposition outcome of young offenders
JO  - Criminal justice and behavior
A1  - Campbell, Mary Ann
A1  - Schmidt, Fred
SP  - 688
EP  - 715
VL  - 27
IS  - 6
N2  - The relative contribution of court-ordered mental health reports and legal factors in determining young offender dispositions was examined. Poor quality of home conditions and severity of substance abuse, as coded from mental health reports, significantly increased the odds of receiving custody over a term of probation once legal factors were controlled. Legal factors significantly predicted probation length, whereas mental health factors only made a small contribution through externalizing behavior problems. The overall concordance between clinicians' mental health recommendations and court dispositions was 67.5%. Although these results suggest mental health reports influence disposition decision making, this influence is more limited than expected given that the purpose of these reports is to assist such decision making. The implications and limitations of these findings are discussed.<p /> <p>Language: en</p>
LA  - en
SN  - 0093-8548
UR  - http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0093854800027006002
ID  - ref1
ER  -