Youth in Detention: Institutional Contexts and Within-Person Change in Psychopathic Traits

Due to many negative effects of institutionalization, adolescents who make contact with the justice system represent a particularly vulnerable population. Justice-involved youth exhibit psychopathic traits at rates higher than the general population. Due to the heterogeneous nature of psychopathy—an externalizing disorder with traits at extreme ends of their respective spectra—psychopathic traits and their plasticity are more complex than previously thought. Given emerging evidence that psychopathic traits may be malleable during adolescence, and the documented negative effects of institutionalization on mental health, understanding whether institutional contexts influence psychopathic trait development has important implications for juvenile justice policy and intervention. This study examines the fixed effects of different institutional stays (correctional, treatment, other) and their combinations, relative to community presence, on psychopathic traits. Using self-report data from ages 14-25 from the Pathways to Desistance dataset of 1,335 juvenile offenders (86.4% male, 20.5% White, 40.97% Black, 33.8% Hispanic, 4.7% Other), this study adopts a longitudinal developmental design spanning from adolescence to young adulthood. Results revealed the expected decline in psychopathic traits with age. Moreover, compared to community presence, stays in corrections-only institutions, combined corrections and treatment institutions, and other institutions were significantly associated with higher psychopathic trait scores. Although presence in treatment-only institutions was also associated with higher psychopathic traits scores, the fixed effect of treatment-only was not statistically significant. These findings emphasize the need to further evaluate institutional experiences and their impact on psychopathic trait development in juveniles.