Words: 438
The exact question that was being researched in this article is: “Do race, substance abuse, and mental health disorders influence number of court offenses, felony conviction(s), probation supervision length, detention length, and number of probation services differently for male and female juvenile offenders? ‘ (up. 231-232). This study uses 341 delinquent youth from a Midwestern urban county at random to participate in the research (p. 229). The county was selected by having the highest number of juvenile offenders in that Midwestern urban area.
This duty was over a three year time period during the years of 2006 through 2008. There was about 6,900 probation cases used in the study (p. 232). The court in this county provided the court files to further research the study. They used the juveniles’ “court history, probation supervision cases files and the mental health assessments for the youth that was selected to be studied” (p. 232). Three different independent variables were being studied such as race, substance abuse, and mental health disorders. The main goal was to detect the influence of race, substance abuse, and mental health disorders ND how it reflected the selected juvenile’s history with the court system to determine if gender had a different effect on them” (p. 238). Many different findings were discovered in the research. Things such as: “26% of both females and males met the criteria for a substance use disorder, 55% of males met the conditions for a mental health disorder while females met 74% of the criteria” (p. 233-234).
A fact that was found about’ race differences was a small proportion of African American females met the standards for a substance use disorder and a mental health disorder as well than non-African Americans females” (pig. 238). The test was researching against African Americans and non-African Americans, not any other precise race. The article states that “there were limitations to their study like possible error in case files, only using one Midwestern County, and possibly having the selected juvenile have an undiagnosed mental health or substance abuse issue that was not in the files used” (p. 39). Further research is needed on this topic to determine if gender has an impact on the individual against the race, substance abuse, and mental health disorders. More information is ‘Wanted like to determine whether juveniles with substance abuse or a mental health issue will refined” (p. 239). Researchers believe that addressing these factors and becoming aware of the issues that the court system will enhance treatment programs for the juvenile that is already involved in the justice system. The reason I choose this article is because it talks about juveniles, people my age.