Adolescent Threats and Violence: An Intriguing Difference

Criminal Justice and Behavior, Ahead of Print.
Relatively little is known about young people who engage in targeted acts of violence. In this study, we explored a sample of young people referred to a youth forensic mental health service for a risk assessment of general violence risk, targeted violence risk, or both general and targeted violence risk. Exploratory comparisons were made across mental health issues and criminogenic risk factors, and results indicated that young people referred for a threat-only assessment were around 20 times more likely to have a depressive mood disorder than young people referred for a violence-only assessment. Furthermore, young people referred for a threat assessment had lower rates of physical abuse, family mental health issues, and prior offending. These results indicate that young people referred for an assessment of targeted violence risk may be distinguished from young people referred for general violence risk, which has important implications for their assessment and treatment.