ABSTRACT
Head injuries may include a number of injuries to the scalp, skull, or brain that are the result of concussions, scalp wounds, skull fractures, and other head trauma. The consequences of head injuries depend on a variety of dimensions of injury. Head injuries—specifically injuries that lead to brain impairment—are associated with a variety of behavioral and cognitive problems. A series of survival analytic models showed that juvenile offenders with a self-reported head injury were more likely to reoffend before those without a head injury over the course of the study period. While brain scans and neurocognitive assessments enable us to measure objectively various dimensions of head injuries, their use as a practical assessment among the full population, or even a subset of the population of adolescent offenders, is cost-prohibitive and impractical. Juvenile offenders are among the highest risk groups for experiencing a head injury, but very few studies have examined the long-term consequences among this at-risk group.
