摘要：We compared arrest onset and frequency and types of charges between a statewide cohort of adolescent girls in the public mental health system and girls of the same age in the general population to investigate important differences that could have policy or intervention implications. Girls in the public mental health system were arrested at earlier ages more frequently and were charged with more serious offenses than were girls in the general population. Our results strongly argue for cooperation between the public mental health and justice systems to provide mental health and offender rehabilitation in their shared population. Males predominate in the juvenile and criminal justice systems, but females are becoming increasingly involved in them as well. 1 , 2 Among youths with justice system involvement, psychiatric disorders are more prevalent among females than males. 3 – 6 Adolescent girls receiving intensive mental health treatment are at high risk of arrest, 7 with one third of those receiving adolescent public mental health services arrested by age 18 years, and nearly one half by age 25 years. Female offender prevention and reduction interventions are in their infancy 8 , 9 ; thus, it is an opportune time to identify factors that may be important considerations in treatment that differentiates between girls involved in the justice system who are and are not recipients of adolescent public mental health services. We compared arrest prevalence, onset age, age-specific risk of arrest, and charge types at age 7 to 25 years of recipients of adolescent public mental health services and females in the general population.
