Health of juvenile delinquents.

Intermediate treatment centres were established in 1969 to enable delinquent adolescents to remain within their communities under supervision, avoiding the imposition of a custodial sentence.' This study compares the physical health of a group of delinquent boys who attended Parkway, an intermediate treatment centre in a deprived inner city area, with that of non-delinquents. Subjects, methods and results Twenty four delinquents admitted during one year were eligible for the study. They were matched with 24 boys who were at the same school and in the same year and who lived in the same postal district. A medical history was obtained, general physical examination was performed, and hearing and vision were assessed. Student's t and the X2 test were used as appropriate. The table shows the physical and social characteristics of the boys. There was no difference in birth weight, the incidence of perinatal problems, or the number ofhospital admissions between the two groups. Urinalysis showed normal results in all cases. Smoking was more common among delinquents (p<0-01). The Physical and social characteristics ofdelinquent and non-delinquent boys. (Figures are means (SD)) Delinquent boys Non-delinquent boys (n=24) (n=24) Afrocaribbean 1 2 (8%) Asian 1 Single parent 9 (38%) 8 (33%) Children in family 4-0 3 0 Unemployed "breadwinner" 9 (38%) 6 (25%) Smokers 20 (83%) 2 (8%)* Failed vision test 9 (38%) 7 (29%) Spectacle wearers 1 t 5* Failed hearing test 8 (33%) 4 (17%) *p<0.05. tSpectacles lost. offences that led to the admission of boys to Parkway were robbery or mugging, or both (six), theft (six), offences at school (four), offences with motor vehicles (four), drug related offences (two), being drunk and disorderly (one), and carrying an offensive weapon (one). There were no significant differences in social class, numbers ofsingle parent families, or unemployed heads ofhouseholds. The delinquents came from slightly, but not significantly, larger families. Boys were tested with spectacles if they had been prescribed. Nine delinquents and seven non-delinquents failed the vision test, but only one of the delinquent boys was aware that he had a vision problem, although he never wore his spectacles. By contrast, five of the non-delinquents wore spectacles (p<005). Hearing was tested with pure tone audiometry 500-4000 Hz. All the boys who failed the test failed to hear at 3-30 db on at least two frequencies. Eight delinquents failed compared with four controls. Three boys in the control group had medical problems: one suffered …