Adolescent homicide: towards assessment of risk

Recent murders committed by children and adolescents have raised concern over the detection and management of dangerous youngsters in our society. Yet in the training of child and adolescent mental health professionals the assessment and management of dangerousness to others is frequently given little attention. This paper attempts to begin to redress the balance by reviewing the mental health literature relevant to homicidal children and adolescents. Background and situational factors relevant to risk are described. Background factors include the witnessing of serious violence, both live and on the screen, as well as abuse through neglect and deprivation. Such trauma can assist in the creation of a morbid identity and a cognitive set that make murder possible in certain situations. Other background factors include learning difficulties and problems with impulse control. However even if a youngster is assessed as highly dangerous it is frequently difficult in the current climate to offer adequate intervention. Issues in the prevention of violence are considered.Through abuse my emotions and self-respect were murdered and so I no longer cared. Do people stand trial for killing someone's insides? No, because you can't produce a corpse... (a teenage killer).