Juvenile justice, delinquency, and psychiatry

Juvenile delinquency is a serious problem in the United States, and is likely to remain so for many years to come. Because delinquency often is accompanied by high rates of coincidental and causal comorbidities, effective treatment programs for CD youths must use multimodal approaches tailored to each youth's particular set of psychopathologies. Child psychiatrists are uniquely qualified to provide assistance and leadership in the treatment of delinquent youths, as their problems are best captured by a developmental psychopathology model. Knowledge regarding the epidemiology of CD, and of the risk factors associated with it, is excellent, although a thorough understanding of resilience and treatment is still developing. Successful involvement in the treatment of delinquent youth requires that psychiatrists maintain a diverse set of skills, a high level of flexibility in treatment approaches, and a special awareness of the legal parameters governing the rehabilitation of these youngsters.