Exploring patterns of court-ordered mental health services for juvenile offenders: Is there evidence of systematic bias

Objective assessments of the risks and needs of court-involved youth may lead to judicial processing that is less vulnerable to actual or perceived racial discrimination. Using data from a statewide assessment system on African American and Caucasian status offenders and delinquents formally processed in one Missouri circuit over a 1-year period, the authors examined the association of race and other factors on court orders for mental health–related services. Relative to their popu-lation distribution, African Americans were overrepresented in the juvenile system and underrepresented in orders for mental health services. In the logit analysis, negative attitudes and behavior problems carried strong associations with orders for mental health services. Risk and need, not bias, were mostly strongly associated with orders for mental health treatment