Adolescent females with limited delinquency – At risk of school failure

Abstract During adolescence, risk behaviors (e.g., running away from home, truancy, alcohol/drug use, and delinquency) increase, and most individuals who at some point commit crimes do so during their teenage years. Since the crime rate is so high during adolescence, juvenile delinquency can be regarded as a normal rather than a deviant behavior. Delinquent females have historically been under-researched. However, the little research that is available indicates that low-risk female offenders (females with limited delinquency receiving community-based measures), may be at risk of suboptimal development. The objective of the present study was to provide a basic description of this group of offenders by using their self-reports on delinquency, drug and alcohol use, school, peers, family and mental health. The self-reports of 138 females between 15 and 20 years of age sentenced to youth service in Stockholm, Sweden, were compared to young females in residential care and to a reference group of adolescent females without known adjustment problems. The results showed that the youth service females did not have a higher number of accumulated problems than the reference group with regard to criminal acts, drug and alcohol use, peers, mental health, and in some regards also for family. However, the youth service group reported various school-related problems and failures, more in line with the residential group. This suggests that interventions aimed at helping the young females develop strategies for becoming more academically successful are important.