Objective: A growing body of research consistently shows that detained minors bear substantial mental health needs. However, the relation between mental disorder and criminal recidivism has largely remained unexplored. Our study examines whether psychiatric disorders increase the likelihood of recidivism after controlling for time at risk, criminal history, and the presence of other disorders. Method: Participants (n = 232) were detained male adolescents from all 3 youth detention centres in Flanders, Belgium, who were interviewed with the Diagnostic Interview Schedule for Children, Version IV. Two to 4 years later, information on serious recidivism was retrieved from the official judicial registration system. Serious recidivism was defined as having at least one arrest charge for violent, severe property crime, or substance-related offences. Results: Serious recidivism was high, with 81% (n = 191) of the participants being rearrested. Psychiatric disorders predicted neither serious recidivism in general nor violent and severe property recidivism. However, other drug use disorder (OR 2.41; 95% CI 1.22 to 4.75) and general comorbidity (OR 2.64; 95% CI 1.40 to 4.99) were significantly predictive of substance-related recidivism. Conclusion: Common psychiatric disorders in detained male adolescents do not significantly increase the likelihood of subsequent arrests, with the exception that substance use disorders appear to increase the risk of later substance-related recidivism. Effective treatment of these disorders may prevent detained juveniles to experience the detrimental outcomes associated with substance-related crimes as adults (for example, mental illness).

Studies have demonstrated that self-report tools can be used to reliably and validly examine psychopathic-like traits in adolescents. However, it is unclear if self-report instruments are still reliable and valid when confidentiality cannot be guaranteed, such as during routine assessments in juvenile detention centres. To address this issue, the current study used data from the routine mental health screening of 365 detained male adolescents (12-18 years) in two juvenile detention centres. With the intention of gaining insight in the clinical usefulness of self-reported psychopathic-like traits, we examined relations known from literature with emotional and behavioural features. Self-reported psychopathic-like traits, measured by the Youth Psychopathic Traits Inventory-Short version (YPI-S), were uniquely associated with substance abuse, anger/irritability, conduct problems and hyperactivity, but not with internalizing problems. YPI-S-dimensions showed several specific relationships with variables of interest. For example, only the callous unemotional dimension was negatively related with prosocial behaviour and only the behavioural dimension was positively related with hyperactivity. In conclusion, self-reported psychopathic-like traits showed expected relations with relevant variables. These findings suggest that self-report can be used to identify detained youths with high levels of psychopathic-like traits outside a research context, thus, even when anonymity and confidentiality are not guaranteed.

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