Children with emotional behavior problems have twice the risk of later police contact

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The association between mental illness and an increased risk of contact with the criminal justice system in adults and adolescents extends into early childhood, according to the results of a cohort study published in JAMA Network Open.

“People with mental illnesses are known to have an increased risk of police contact, both as potential perpetrators and as survivors of criminal offenses, at least in adolescence and adulthood.” Chelsea Dean, MBBS, PhD, from the School of Psychiatry at the University of New South Wales in Australia, and colleagues wrote. “The extent to which emerging mental health problems could predispose young children to early police contact has not yet been systematically investigated, although it is important to develop evidence-based early detection and intervention strategies, including the inclusion of trauma-informed approaches in system and service responses. ”

Infographic data derived from: Dean K, et al. JAMA network open. 2021; doi: 10.1001 / jamanetworkopen.2021.12057.

The researchers wanted to determine whether children with emotional or behavioral problems and general developmental weaknesses had an increased risk of later police contact as an interested person, survivor of a crime or as a witness. They analyzed data from 79,801 children (50.9% boys; 2009 mean age 5.2 years) from the New South Wales Child Development Study in Australia, which included children attending full-time school in New South Wales in 2009 and had complete data for The area of ​​emotional maturity of the Australian Early Development Census and had no police contact prior to January 1, 2009. The cohort participants were re-examined up to the age of 13 years. Exposures included emotional or behavioral problems and developmental risk profiles according to the teacher-assessed Australian Early Development Census. The most important results and measures used were the incidence rates of police contacts, which were determined using the Computerized Operational Policing System of the New South Wales Police Force.

The results showed a double incidence rate of police contacts for any reason in children with teacher-identified emotional or behavioral problems entering school compared to children without such problems (unadjusted HR = 2.14; 95% CI 1.94-2.37). The most commonly recorded manifestation of police contact was a crime survivor (9.2%); however, the strength of the association was most significant between emotional or behavioral problems and police contact as a person of interest (unadjusted HR = 4.75; 95% CI, 3.64-6.19). Children with a pervasive developmental risk profile had a high incidence of police contact as the person of interest (unadjusted HR = 13.8; 95% CI 9.79-19.45).

“This large longitudinal cohort study has shown that the well-known association between mental health problems and exposure to the criminal justice system in adults and adolescents can be identified at an earlier stage and extends to police contacts for any reason,” write Dean and colleagues. “These results support primary and secondary interventions to prevent early police contacts and target the earliest contacts with the criminal justice system and the education system.”

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