Predicting Risk of Violent Misconduct in Juvenile Detention: Polyvictimization Latent Classes and Posttraumatic Stress Symptoms
Abstract
Secure juvenile detention settings are marked by high rates of violence (i.e., violent misconduct), which pose physical and psychological safety concerns for youth and staff. However, little is known about who is at greatest risk of engaging in violence, and which factors contribute to rates of violent misconduct while detained. Given the frequency of trauma exposure among detained adolescents, the current study utilized latent class analysis (LCA) to characterize adolescents in pre-adjudication secure juvenile detention (N = 1,172) who were at risk of violent misconduct based on their patterns of lifetime traumatic events (TEs) and current posttraumatic stress symptoms (PTSS) identified at intake. Results support identification of three distinct classes of detained adolescents, with two polyvictimized (PV) subtypes and one subtype with relatively low TE exposure. The two PV subtypes were differentiated by primarily community violence (PV/CV; 38.9%) versus primarily interpersonal violence (PV/IV; 6.9%). There were significant differences in sex, age, and race/ethnicity, but not delinquency history, across latent class membership. Three-step manual BCH negative binomial regression followed by a weighted multicategorical mediation analysis were conducted to examine the association between class membership and violent misconduct. There was no direct effect of class membership on violent misconduct. However, there was a significant indirect effect of class membership on violent misconduct via PTSD total symptom severity and Criterion E (hyperarousal/reactivity) symptom severity only for the PV/CV class relative to the Low class. Findings suggest that LCA is an effective analytic technique to classify adolescents in secure juvenile detention based on their trauma screening data. Specifically, adolescents with multiple community violence TEs who exhibit significant hyperarousal/reactivity may confer the greatest risk of violent misconduct while detained. Results reinforce the use of an efficient, subtype-informed approach to triage adolescents at intake to appropriate assessment and treatment aimed at reducing PTSS and violent misconduct. Overall, the results support novel pathways to contextualize the risk of violence in secure juvenile detention to improve safety for both youth and staff.
Subject Area
Clinical psychology|Mental health|Criminology
Recommended Citation
Weinberger, Emily Carron, "Predicting Risk of Violent Misconduct in Juvenile Detention: Polyvictimization Latent Classes and Posttraumatic Stress Symptoms" (2024). ETD Collection for Fordham University. AAI28028454.
https://research.library.fordham.edu/dissertations/AAI28028454
