Michael F. Caldwell

Treatment Response of Adolescent Offenders With Psychopathy Features A 2-Year Follow-Up

This study examines the treatment response of 141 juvenile offenders with high scores on the Psychopathy Checklist:Youth Version (M total > 27). Two groups of potentially psychopathic offenders are compared: one that participates in the Mendota Juvenile Treatment Center (MJTC), an intensive treatment program (MJTC, n = 56), and another that receives “treatment as usual” in conventional juvenile correctional institution (JCI) settings (JCI, n = 85). Offenders in the JCI group are more than twice as likely to violently recidivate in the community during a 2-year follow-up than those who participate in MJTC treatment. Treatment is associated with relatively slower and lower rates of serious recidivism, even after controlling for the effects of nonrandom assignment to treatment groups and release status. Implications for further research, treatment development, and juvenile justice issues are discussed.

What We Do Not Know About Juvenile Sexual Reoffense Risk

States have increasingly subject juvenile sexual offenders to sex offender registration and commitment under sexual predator laws in recent years. These statutes assume that sexual offenders present a sustained risk to recommit sexually violent crimes over an extended time period. Implicit in this assumption is that criminal sexual behavior is a product of some form of stable trait or condition that continues to push the juvenile toward sexually violent behaviors as they get older. This article examines these assumptions in light of the available research on the stability of sexually offending behavior in juveniles. The difficulties attendant to applying adult offender risk assessment models to juvenile sexual offenders are addressed. The available evidence indicates that the development and persistence of sexually criminal behavior is poorly understood, making the prediction of sustained sexual offending in juveniles that is required by some sexual predator statutes a particularly difficult task.

Study Characteristics and Recidivism Base Rates in Juvenile Sex Offender Recidivism

This study reports on the results of a review and meta-analysis of 63 data sets that examine sexual recidivism among juvenile sex offenders. The studies include a total of 11,219 juvenile sex offenders, followed for a weighted mean of 59.4 months (SD = 36.1 months). Recidivism is identified through official records of arrest or conviction. The weighted mean sexual recidivism rate is 7.08% ( SD = 3.9%). The weighted mean rate of general recidivism is 43.4% ( SD = 18.9%). Studies that examine sexual recidivism during adolescence find monthly sexual recidivism rates that are more than 4 times higher than those found in studies that rely only on adult recidivism records. Neither the level of secured placement (community, residential, or secured custody) nor the use of arrest versus conviction as an outcome significantly influences sexual recidivism rates.

Testing Factor Models of the Psychopathy Checklist: Youth Version and Their Association With Instrumental Aggression

Although there is a documented link between psychopathy and instrumental violence in adult offenders, the association between these constructs has not garnered significant attention in adolescent offenders. In this study, we evaluated the relationship between psychopathy and instrumental aggression in a sample of 122 male adolescents incarcerated in a state facility for serious and chronic offenders. We evaluated the primary (2-, 3-, and 4-factor) models of the Psychopathy Checklist: Youth Version (PCL:YV; Forth, Kosson, & Hare, 2003) and assessed their relationship to a separate 5-item measure of instrumental violence. CFA revealed good model fit for the 3- and 4-factor latent variable models of adolescent psychopathy and a single-factor model reflecting a 5-item measure of instrumental violence. Structural equation modeling results indicate that the 4-factor model accounted for 20% of the variance for instrumental violence. In contrast, the 3-factor model of the PCL:YV accounted for 8%, and the 2-factor model accounted for 5% of the variance associated with instrumental violence.

Evidence of Treatment Progress and Therapeutic Outcomes Among Adolescents With Psychopathic Features

This study examined the relation between psychopathic features and treatment progress in a group of 86 delinquent boys. On admission to a specialized intensive treatment program, Psychopathic Checklist: Youth Version (PCL:YV) scores were computed and subsequently compared with treatment progress. Treatment progress was measured using a series of daily behavior rating scales and with a measure of institutional misconducts that required security intervention. The results found significant improvement in behavioral and security measures with treatment. PCL:YV scores did not interact with treatment progress. Regression analysis showed that initial, but not final, behavioral and security levels were predicted by PCL:YVscores. The final scores were predicted only by the duration of treatment. Furthermore, violent recidivism during a 4-year follow-up was predicted by final behavioral scores but not initial PCL:YV scores.

Are Violent Delinquents Worth Treating? A Cost–Benefit Analysis:

This study reports on the cost benefits of an intensive treatment program for unmanageable juvenile delinquent boys, compared to the usual treatment in a secured juvenile corrections facility. A total of 101 boys who received the majority of their treatment services in a specialized program providing intensive mental health treatment were matched to a group of 101 juveniles who received treatment as usual (TAU) in a secured juvenile corrections setting on the basis of treatment propensity scores. Outcome data included the number and type of criminally charged offenses over an average follow-up period of 53 months (range 14 to 92 months). Borrowing from Cohen criminal justice processing costs for each offense was calculated in 2001 dollars. The initial costs of the program were offset by improved treatment progress and lowered recidivism, especially violent recidivism. The treatment group yielded a benefit-cost ratio of more than 7 to 1 over the TAU group. The results are discussed and compared to cost-benefit analyses of other juvenile treatment programs.

Sex offender registration and recidivism risk in juvenile sexual offenders

Juvenile sex offenders are increasingly included in sex offender registration laws, based, in part, on the assumption that they pose a distinctively high risk for future sexual violence and registration may help to mitigate this risk. To test this assumption, the current study compares risk scores on the static scales of the Juvenile Sex Offender Assessment Protocol-II (JSOAP-II; Prentky & Righthand, 2003) and the Youth Level of Service/Case Management Inventory (YLS/CMI; Hoge, Andrews, & Leschied, 2002), between samples of 106 registered and 66 unregistered juvenile sex offenders. New criminal charges, including sexually based crimes, were examined over a mean follow-up of 49.2 months (SD = 29.6 months). Results indicated that registered youth had lower risk scores on scales that most accurately predicted recidivism and registered youth were charged with new crimes at rates similar to those of unregistered youth. Reoffense risk, as measured by the risk scales, was not moderated by registration. The findings did not support the assumption that registration can effectively lower the risk for reoffense in juvenile offenders.

Treatment-Related Changes in Psychopathy Features and Behavior in Adolescent Offenders

The impact of changes in psychopathy characteristics on institutional behavior was assessed in 127 incarcerated delinquent males who were treated in a specialized intensive treatment program. Participants were administered the self-report version of the Antisocial Processes Screening Device (APSD) on admission to the program and every 90 days through treatment. Changes in all APSD scales predicted improvement in institutional behavior and treatment involvement. For the 77 youth who had at least three administrations, repeated-measures analysis of variance showed significant changes in APSD total, Callous/Unemotional, Narcissism, and Impulsivity scores. For 127 youth who had at least two administrations and daily behavioral ratings, changes in each scale predicted improved institutional behavior and treatment compliance.

Assessing risk in adolescent sexual offenders: Recommendations for clinical practice

Accurately predicting the likelihood that an adolescent with a sex offense history will reoffend is a precarious task that carries with it the potential for extreme consequences for the adolescent offender (e.g., lifelong public registration). Recently implemented laws regarding adolescent sex offenders are dramatically upstream of current knowledge. Several of these laws were ostensibly based on the misassumption that clinicians could accurately identify adolescents at the greatest risk for sexual recidivism. However, predicting which adolescents are at greatest risk to sexually recidivate is severely constrained by limited knowledge about which predictors are most accurately linked to sexual recidivism and uncertainty over how to best make use of instruments designed to predict recidivism. This paper reviews research on risk assessment and provides a set of recommendations for conducting risk assessments with adolescent sex offenders.

Efficacy of a Decompression Treatment Model in the Clinical Management of Violent Juvenile Offenders

Criminal recidivism was assessed for 10 highly disruptive and aggressive, incarcerated juvenile offenders who received decompression treatment, for 10 matched controls who received mental health treatment services, and for 10 assessment-only controls. Treated participants were matched with controls on a number of demographic, behavioral, and personality variables. Decompression treatment was developed to improve the institutional adjustment of mentally disordered adult offenders and is adapted here for juvenile offenders. Participants in the decompression treatment and usual treatment groups were both significantly less likely to recidivate in the approximately 2-year follow-up period than were assessment-only subjects who received mental health assessment only and received the usual juvenile corrections rehabilitation services (10%, 20%, and 70% recidivism, respectively). The results suggest that decompression treatment may be successfully applied to the most unmanageable and disruptive institutionalized juvenile offenders.