Using ASSET data for mental health research on young offenders: Issues and implications for researchers

Abstract

The ASSET profiling system was introduced in April 2000 as a structured risk assessment for use by all Youth Offending Teams (YOTs) to help target problems associated with reoffending and promote consistency of practice. It is also potentially useful to researchers as it provides an opportunity to study large samples of young offenders. One particular area where ASSET may be useful is mental health. Mental health problems are extremely common in the young offender population. This population is also unlikely to have had previous contact with mental health services, making active screening particularly important. Most evaluations of forensic mental health screening so far have focused on incarcerated samples, but have typically shown mental health screening to be inadequate. The aim of the present study was, therefore, to assess the quality of the mental health data from ASSET. A random selection of ASSET data from a large city-based YOT were analysed to examine suicidal behaviour in young offenders. Problems were encountered including reliability issues specific to the YOT context but also general difficulties involved in screening with this population. Recommendations are made both for researchers, for example further use of anonymous self-report data, and for screening for mental health problems in young offenders generally, such as the use of more interactive screening formats. Despite the current problems encountered we believe that continued efforts to improve the use of ASSET will lead to the development of a valuable data set both for researchers and frontline staff.