Antisocial behaviours in New Zealand youth: Prevalence, interventions and promising new directions

Violent criminal acts and other serious crimes perpetrated by young people represent a complex and pervasive clinical problem with detrimental consequences for victims, the families of victims and perpetrators, and the larger community. Compounding the problems posed by youth violence and criminality is the general lack of success that mental health and juvenile justice services have had in ameliorating serious antisocial behaviours in youth. Mental health, social and judicial services in New Zealand are under mounting pressure to provide effective treatment programmes for increasing numbers of antisocial youth. Multisystemic therapy (MST) is a family- and home-based therapeutic approach that has been viewed as a highly promising treatment for antisocial youth. The potential of MST as a treatment option for antisocial youth in New Zealand is discussed.