Juvenile delinquency represents a broad term to identify behaviors that vary from engaging in status offenses (eg running away from home, school absenteeism, alcohol consumption) up to engage in criminal acts and violence (use/distribution of illegal substances, burglary, robbery). (Montgomery & colab., 2001)

Identifying personality disorders in delinquent adolescents.

This paper aimed to determine if juvenile deliquency is related to personality disorders and a set of risk factors.

We used a lot of 30 patients, aged 14–18 years, subjected to forensic examination at the Child Psychiatry Clinic of Cluj-Napoca during 2011. To assess personality disorders we used SCID II - structured interview to identify personality disorders on axis II-DSM and a set of questions related to the origin area, socioeconomic status, education level, family environment, consumption of toxic, belonging to certain social groups, family history,were adressed to the adolescents and their parents. To assess intellectual coefficient were used Raven Progressive Matrices.

The most common personality disorders found in delinquent teenagers were borderline personality disorder, obsessive-compulsive personality disorder, narcissistic personality disorder and traits of antisocial personality disorder. We couldn't identify a statistically significant relationship between the family environment, the socioeconomic status, the presence of a concurrent psychiatric disorder, the consumption of toxic, the education level and juvenile deliquency.

Because juvenile delinquency represents a real social problem is important to identify underlying traits or personality disorders in order to establish individualized and specific treatment plans.