The number of juvenile offenders admitted to Malaysian
prisons is alarming. The purpose of this paper is to determine the presence of
any psychiatric disorders and their association with personal characteristics
of juvenile detainees in prisons across Peninsular Malaysia.
Detainees were recruited from five different prisons in
Peninsular Malaysia and interviewed by a psychiatrist using the MINI-Kid and
FACES-IV, relevant personal and family information was also collected.
A total of 105 detainees participated in the study. Almost
all of the offenders (93.3%) had at least one diagnosable psychiatric
disorder and more than half (76.2%) had two or more psychiatric
diagnoses. Conduct disorder (CD) was the commonest disorder (59.0%),
while substance use disorders (SUD) was the commonest co-morbidity. A
significant correlation was found between presence of CD, education level and
SUD. Almost all (98.4%) of the detainees with CD, had not
completed schooling, and detainees with
this disorder were more likely to use substances than detainees without CD. Detainees with any psychiatric diagnosis were
more likely to have four or more siblings in their families.
There is a high prevalence of psychiatric disorders among
juvenile offenders in Malaysian prisons, detection and intervention would be
important.
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By:
- 1Psychiatrist and a Senior Lecturer, based at Department of Psychological Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, University Malaya, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
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