NCJ Number
209879
Journal
Substance Use & Misuse Volume: 40 Issue: 5 Dated: 2005 Pages: 721-734
Date Published
2005
Length
14 pages
Annotation
This study focused on youths’ interpretations of their deviant trajectories, specifically surrounding their drug use and delinquency.
Abstract
Taking a qualitative approach, this phenomenological research study on youths’ opinions about their delinquency and drug use trajectories had two objectives: (1) to highlight the juveniles’ interpretation of the links between their delinquency and (2) to understand the youths points’ of view on the evolution of their deviant trajectory. The study used a life account method to conduct a total of 62 interviews of boys and girls recruited in youth detention and addiction treatment centers, youth centers, high schools, and on the streets of 3 cities in Quebec between 1996 and 2002. The deviant trajectories of the youth were broken down into five stages, according to the motivations given by the adolescents for their drug use. These five stages include: occurrence, deviant investment, sequential deviance, compulsion, and total or temporary rehabilitation. Overall, results indicate that the more advanced the stage, the more reasons given by youth to explain their drug consumption going from pleasure to numbing their pain, as well as delinquency from a result of drug use. References