ArticleChild and adolescent psychiatry and mental health2026
More symptoms, less crime: distinguishing clinical severity from violence risk in a national follow-up study of adolescent forensic inpatients.
Article in Child and adolescent psychiatry and mental health, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
0 citing papers in PubMed.
No citing paper in PubMed yet.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
2 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundThe predictive value of symptom severity on post-discharge criminal offending in forensic psychiatric settings remains unknown, potentially leading to prolonged institutionalization of stabilized patients under the rationale of public safety. Furthermore, outcomes of adolescent forensic psychiatric inpatient care are understudied.
aimsTo explore if clinical symptom severity predicts subsequent criminal offending, to investigate the role of severe disorders in future offending, and to quantify offence rates among former adolescent forensic inpatients compared to the general population.
methodsThis national register-based study followed 289 youths (under 18 years) consecutively admitted to a forensic psychiatric inpatient unit in Finland between 2003 and 2019 for up to 18 years. Offence rates were analyzed using Cox proportional hazards regression, comparing patients against 1,149 matched general population controls. Predictors included the Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale (BPRS; score range 18-126 points) and Structured Assessment of Violence Risk in Youth (SAVRY), both assigned during a two-month evaluation.
resultsFormer patients had a significantly higher hazard of offending than controls (HR 6.67, 95% CI 5.10-8.72). However, higher clinical symptom severity (BPRS) independently reduced the risk of future offending by 2% per point (HR = 0.98, 95% CI 0.96-1.00, p = .025); e.g., a 20-point difference corresponds to an approximate 34% reduction in risk. High-risk patients (SAVRY) with severe symptoms offended at rates similar to low-risk patients. Personality disorders were associated with subsequent offending (HR = 1.92, 95% CI 1.01-3.66, p = .047), while schizophrenia spectrum disorders and Length of Stay were not.
conclusionsSevere psychopathology predicts reduced subsequent offending after forensic adolescent inpatient care, possibly due to treatment responsiveness, systemic safety nets and functional impairment. Prolonging hospitalization under the rationale of public safety based on symptom severity may be unnecessary for stabilized patients if continuity of care and outpatient supervision are ensured.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.