Discontinuities in and Perceptions of Mental Health Service Path of Violent Young Offenders: A Qualitative Descriptive Study.

Studies on mental health service use among juvenile violent offenders prior to their acts of violence are sparse. Mostly, their service use seems to be short-term, although there may have been several service periods. Little is known about how they have perceived those services.

Lifelong mental health service use among 15-22 years old offenders: a document-based, mixed-methods descriptive study.

Objectives: Among young offenders, psychiatric morbidity and comorbidity are common, but our knowledge about their use of mental health services during childhood and adolescence is scarce. We aimed to describe the lifelong use of mental health services of young offenders who have committed serious crimes.

Design And Study Setting: Using data on forensic psychiatric examinations of 42 Finnish offenders aged 15-22 years, we analysed the timing and typical patterns of their prior mental health service use with qualitative and quantitative content analysis and typification.