The Effectiveness of the Child Behavior Checklist in Identifying the Behavioral Patterns and Security Requirements of Juvenile Offenders

Since its publication the Child Behavior Checklist (Achenbach and Edelbrock, 1983) has been presented as a behavioral assessment helpful in distinguishing delinquency and emotional disturbance. This study investigated: 1) the capacity of this scale to profile the behavior of adolescent offenders; and 2) the relationship between the security of an individual's placement and the severity of their behavior. Statistical analysis of 244 behavioral ratings indicated the Checklist was successful in identifying behaviorally different subgroups of delinquent youth. The severity scores were not effective in differentiating the level of security to which the offenders were classified. The results are discussed in relation to both the treatment of individual youth and the adequacy of an agency's classification system.