Adolescent forensic psychiatry

Adolescent forensic psychiatry merges understanding of the developmental trajectories of personality and behavioural traits with assessment of risk and treatment of mental disorder in young people who are offending or harming others. This article describes the various mental health services that have developed in England to provide help for these young people across health, social care, and criminal justice, including medium secure mental health services for adolescents. The different disorders and behaviours that commonly present to adolescent forensic services, including conduct disorder, psychopathy, and sexually harmful behaviour, are also reviewed. Risk assessment is described briefly, with reference to structured assessment tools that can be used with young people in the assessment of violence, psychopathy, and sexual offending.