Abstract
Objective: To investigate how mental health is understood and approached in the attention models of detention centers for the convicted underage population in Argentina, Colombia, United States and Canada. Methodology: A literature search was conducted using the following key words: adolescence, mental health, juvenile justice, juvenile delinquency, risk factors, and interventions. Searches were done through the search engine Pubmed. Additionally, public institution websites for each country were consulted. Conclusions: Juvenile delinquency is now understood as a multi-factorial phenomenon with multiple areas of intervention within which economic, domestic and social factors are considered relevant, since these favor the development of criminal behavior. A similarity was found between Colombian and Argentinian systems; both are based on restorative justice that seeks reparation and not punishment; which is why there are no punitive measures. When comparing Canada and the United States, it can be seen that Canada is more similar to Latin-American countries than to the United States, given that the latter uses punitive measures focused on the offender.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.