Bradley center to study young offenders

PROVIDENCE – Marina Tolou-Shams, a psychologist from the Bradley Hasbro Children’s Research Center, has received a $3.4 million grant to study the behavioral health and associated risk factors of adolescent offenders in the Rhode Island Family Court system. The study, funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse, will focus on non-incarcerated, court-involved youth, and will monitor what risk behaviors the teens may develop, as well as underlying causes.

The study, titled “Epidemiological Project Involving Children in the Court,” or Project EPICC, will follow 400 Rhode Island Family Court-involved youth between the ages of 13 to 17, and their caregivers. Tolou-Shams’ team will monitor the development of drug use, HIV/STD risk behaviors, psychiatric symptoms and recidivism in the adolescent offender population in the two years after the initial arrest or court contact.

“This is the first large-scale study of its kind,” said Tolou-Shams. “Our findings will have the potential to shape the way we work with court-involved youth, in not just the public health field, but also in the psychology and psychiatry fields. There may be better ways to help this population avoid developing risk-behaviors or breaking the law again.”

Prior research of detained and incarcerated youth has shown that between 50 and 70 percent of detained juvenile offenders have a diagnosable psychiatric disorder, even when excluding conduct disorders. Mental health problems increase criminal activity risk and, when paired with substance use, contribute to health and legal difficulties for adolescents that can persist into adulthood.

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