Thirty girls who had been detained in a remand home on suspicion of prostitution were examined in the University Hospital, Kuala Lumpur. All except two were below 21 years old. Endocervical and high vaginal swabs were taken for cultures. A sample of blood was taken for serology. Eleven of the girls [37%] had no evidence of a sexually transmitted disease. The others [63%] had one or more of the following: 5 with positive serology for syphilis, 3 had gonorrhoea, 6 with trichomonas, 2 with candidiasis.rl with Chlamydia trachomatls, 2 with Ureaplasma urealyticum and 1 with C. vaginale. With such a high incidence of STD in these young girls with a history of prostitution, it is recommended that a more regular and comprehensive screening be carried out on such high risk women.
Study site: University Malaya Medical Centre (UMMC)
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.
BACKGROUND: Several studies have reported significant positive correlations between smoking during pregnancy by mothers and the involvement of their offspring in criminal/delinquent behaviour later in life, but these findings have been described as modest and the criminality based on official conviction statistics.
AIMS: We sought to verify this relationship and probe for more details on the basis of self-reported offending among college students.
METHODS: Independently completed questionnaires were collected from 6332 students and their mothers. The students provided information about their delinquent acts, if any, according to eight categories. Their mothers provided retrospective reports of their smoking habits, if any, during pregnancy.
FINDINGS: Mothers who recalled having smoked during pregnancy were significantly more likely than non-smoking mothers to have offspring who self-reported engaging in some types of delinquency. This relationship was more evident for female offspring than for male offspring and was most pronounced for illegal drug use by the offspring. There was, however, no relationship between offspring offending and estimated number of cigarettes smoked by mothers, month of pregnancy when smoked or consistency of smoking throughout pregnancy.
CONCLUSION: Overall, our study confirms that maternal smoking during pregnancy is associated with offspring involvement in delinquency, but the lack of critical timing or dose-response relationships between maternal smoking and later offspring delinquency cast doubt on the possibility that the associations are due to teratogenic effects of tobacco smoke.
Study site: college students at 20 US and two Canadian universities
Matched MeSH terms: Juvenile Delinquency/psychology*; Juvenile Delinquency/statistics & numerical data
Introduction : Social problems among adolescents are on the increasing trend. Their involvement in different kinds of high risk behaviours could lead them into juvenile delinquency. Early adolescence is the stage where they are easily influenced. However, this is the period where they should be captured for health prevention enhancement.
Objectives : A cross-sectional study was carried out to identify factors associated with risk taking behaviours involving form one adolescents in selected secondary schools in Johor Bharu.
Methods : Using self administered questionnaires, a total of 280 respondents were recruited via multi-stage sampling.
Results : The prevalence of risk taking behaviour among respondents was 66.8%. Going to video games and karaoke centres was the most popular risk taking behaviour (46.8%) to be followed by truancy (30.7%). Among all the factors studied, being male (AOR=4.5, 95% CI 2.39-8.4), Malay (AOR=7.5, 95% CI 3.30-17.19), and having negative perception towards teachers (AOR 0.3, 95% CI 0.16-0.65) were risk factors for such behaviour among respondents. However, coming from an intact family (AOR=0.1), 95% CI 0.02-0.47) was found to be protective against risk taking behaviour.
Conclusion : Intact family structure and having positive perception towards teachers were found to be protective against risk taking behaviours among adolescents.
This study examined different types of symptoms of problem behaviours among juvenile offenders. Various symptoms of problem behaviours such as social problem, thinking problem, attention problem, rule-breaking behaviour, and aggressive behaviour can be predicted among young juvenile delinquents. There were 404 juvenile offenders participated in the study, consisted of 280 males and 124 females. All respondents convicted with seven different offenses. Prior to that, three research questions were developed: 1. Are there differences in the symptoms of problem behaviours among different types of juvenile offenders? 2. Are there gender differences in the symptoms of problem behaviours among young offenders? 3. Are there any age differences in the symptoms of problem behaviours among juvenile offenders? The results showed there were different symptoms of problem behaviours among young offenders. Gender differences profile also showed mean differences in each symptom of problem behaviours among juvenile offenders. One-way ANOVA results showed significant differences in thought problem F (7) = 2.748, p< .01 and attention problem F (7) = 25.948, p < .01 among different types of delinquent behaviours. Moreover, t-test results revealed that gender differences were significant in social problem; t (402) = -2.710, p
There is little doubt that family factors can influence involvement in delinquency, although the full nature and extent of their influences remain unclear. In recent decades, testosterone has been increasingly implicated as a contributor to adolescent offending. The present study sought to determine whether two important types of familial factors--parental socioeconomic status and amicable parent-child relationships--are interacting with testosterone (and possibly other androgens) to affect delinquency. A large sample of North American college students self-reported their involvement in eight categories of delinquency along with self-ratings of various androgen-promoted traits (e.g., muscularity and low-deep voice), parental social status, and the quality of the relationships they had with parents. In both sexes, parent-child relationships and androgens were significantly associated with delinquency but parental social status was not. Factor analysis revealed that the authors' measures of all four categories of variables exhibited strong loadings onto their respective factors. Androgens and amicable parent-child relationships were associated with delinquency but parental social status was not. About one third of the influence of parent-child relationships on delinquency appeared to be attributable to androgens. Findings are discussed from the perspective of the evolutionary neuroandrogenic theory of delinquent and criminal behavior.