Philosophically, juvenile justice incorporates the need to assess offender needs and provide appropriate services to them.Yet the extent to which juvenile justice systems currently identify and service mental health needs is questionable. Furthermore, it is unclear whether certain types of offenders are more or less likely to receive services based on individual and case characteristics. In this study these issues were examined by using juvenile cases processed in an East Coast state between 1992 and 1994. Findings from this study show that mental health placements are used rarely relative to other court outcomes (i.e., dismissal, probation, or other types of placements), and gender and race significantly influence whether an offender receives this type of placement.
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