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Psychotic and Conduct Disorder Symptoms in Juvenile Murderers

University of Florida

KERRILYN SCOTT

University of Florida

Few studies have addressed how child and adolescent murderers differ from aggressive youth who have not killed. This study had two novel aims concerning the psychopathology of such offenders. First, the prevalence and characteristics of psychotic symptoms in a sample of juvenile murderers with conduct disorder were examined in-depth. Second, these juvenile murderers were compared with violent inpatient youth with conduct disorders who had not committed murder. Juvenile murderers were significantly more likely to have experienced any psychotic symptom, paranoid ideation, and to have had previous court involvement. However, they were significantly less likely to have ever received mental health counseling. Their episodic psychotic symptoms were not due to major psychiatric illness, but instead appeared to have a multifactorial etiology consisting of constitutional, neurological, environmental, and cultural underpinnings. This study lends support for psychotic symptoms being a common neuropsychiatric risk factor for homicidal acts by violent youth with conduct disorder. Moreover, in spite of these juvenile murderers having long-standing and conspicuous emotional and behavioral disturbances antedating their crimes, they had not received needed mental health intervention.

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