An investigation of the relationship between mental health and recidivism among incarcerated youth offenders in South Africa: the role of substance use

Theoretical models of crime underlying the deterrent approach to crime control often fail to account for the role of mental health in mediating deviance. Nor does this approach account for the role of system responses, unique to a post-apartheid context. There is paucity in the literature on the role of mental health on recidivism in South Africa. This study was therefore designed to determine the relationship between mental health and recidivism among incarcerated youth offenders in South Africa and the role of substance use. The Ecological Systems Theory and the Theory of Planned Behaviour provided the theoretical frameworks for this study. A cross-sectional quantitative exploratory research design was used. 280 youth offenders (male and female, aged 18-35) incarcerated at a Durban Maximum Correctional Service in KwaZulu-Natal who do not have a known psychiatric diagnosis were sampled, using multi-stage random sampling. A self-administered structured questionnaire was used to collect the data. The final instrument consisted of six sections. Section 1 consisted of socio-demographic data. Section 2, measured the history of imprisonment. Section 3, is the Hopkins symptoms checklist (HSCL-25), which measures depression and anxiety disorder. Section 4, measures youth offenders' attraction to crime using an adapted version of the appetitive aggression scale. Section 5, is a measure of substance use using the CRAFFT measure (Car, Relax, Alone, Forget, Friends, Trouble). Finally, section 6 was an adapted version of the Measure of Criminal Attitudes and Associates scale (MCAA). Data were analyzed using SPSS. Several statistical analyses were used in this study to include, descriptive analysis, multiple regression, binary logistic regression, factor analysis, cluster analysis and chi-square analysis. The minimum age for participants was 19 and maximum age is 35, the majority of participants were aged 32 and the average age is 30. The majority of participants have secondary school education (65.8%, n=171), and participants who have not received any formal education are (3.5%, n=9). The majority of participants are black (91.4%, n=245), and Coloured (6.3%, n=17), male (93.0%, n=251) and from KwaZulu-Natal (87.1% n=237). Descriptive analysis also showed that the rate of recidivism (re-offending) among this offender population is 32.4% (n=82), while 67.6% (n=171) of the participants have not recidivated. This study promotes social change by highlighting the need for the further exploration of combined factors that increase recidivism. Findings from this study are helpful to health and criminal justice organizations as they indicate the need for strengthening the provision of programs that address mental health screening, diagnosis and treatment as well as programs that address appetitive aggression issues in efforts to curb recidivism