Mental disorders in prison populations aged 15-21: national register study of two cohorts in Finland

Abstract

Juvenile delinquency is linked to psychiatric morbidity. 1w1-w9 We were interested in temporal changes in psychiatric morbidity in offenders.Criminal policy in many Western countries emphasises the need for alternative methods of punishment for adolescent prisoners. 2In Finland, successful policy to diminish the number of adolescents in prisons has been internationally recognised. 3We studied the changes in psychiatric hospitalisations in Finnish prisoners aged 15 to 21 to see whether a selection process occurs as the number of young prisoners decreases. What this study addsMore mentally ill young people end up in prison as the prison population diminishes