Using the MAYSI-2 to identify mental disorder among Latino juvenile offenders.

Many juvenile justice agencies have adopted the Massachusetts Youth Screening Inventory-Version 2 (MAYSI-2; Grisso & Barnum, 2006) to facilitate appropriate programming for young offenders with mental illness. Although Latinos are the fastest-growing ethnic group in the criminal justice system, there is scant research on the utility of the MAYSI-2 among Latino adolescents. The present study examined the utility of the MAYSI-2 in detecting diagnosable mental illness among 398 Latino and 60 European American adolescents in a juvenile justice agency.

Prevalence of internalizing, externalizing, and psychotic disorders among low-risk juvenile offenders.

To effectively allocate mental health services, agencies must be able to predict what proportion of youth will have a mental disorder. Prevalence estimates are available for juvenile offenders at intake, detained youth, and incarcerated youth, but there is limited research on prevalence of mental disorders for juvenile offenders who are low-risk to reoffend, many of whom are first time offenders (i.e.

Probation Officer Role Emphases and Use of Risk Assessment Information before and after Training.

This research examined how probation officers use risk information about offenders, and how its use is affected by what aspects of their role they emphasize. Officers (N = 152) were invited to complete surveys before and after a risk assessment tool training (46.0-65.

The relationship between officer orientation and supervision strategies in community corrections.

Community corrections (i.e., probation and parole) officers play a crucial role within criminal justice agencies: They have the onerous task to balance the competing demands of rehabilitating offenders while protecting the community.