NCJ Number
177018
Journal
Adolescence Volume: 32 Issue: 126 Dated: Summer 1997 Pages: 395-405
Date Published
1997
Length
11 pages
Annotation
This study examined the extent to which alcohol use and other drug use was related to violent and nonviolent criminal activity among a sample of adolescent males.
Abstract
Data were collected from adolescent offenders at a juvenile training school in a northeastern State. Questionnaires were administered to 342 (82 percent) of the offenders, but the current analysis involved only the male offenders (n=312). The variables included in the analysis were type of criminal offense, alcohol use and other drug use, criminal history, and race. The analysis focused on assessing the extent to which alcohol/drug use was associated with various types of crime, with a focus on violence-related criminal activity; it also analyzed the influence of alcohol/drug use as a predictor of criminal behavior relative to other predictors, including race and criminal history variables. The findings show that compared to marijuana and heroin, alcohol use was more strongly and consistently associated with both violent and nonviolent offenses. When other factors were introduced into the analysis, the results show that although an adolescent's criminal history and racial identity were relatively more important in predicting criminal activity overall, the effect of substance use (especially alcohol and marijuana) continued to be present. 2 tables and 18 references