Association Between Alcohol and Drugs and Juvenile Delinquency: Implications for Alcohol and Drug Education

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

8-1-2020

Publication Title

Journal of Alcohol and Drug Education

Volume

64

Issue

2

First page number:

1

Last page number:

3

Abstract

In 2017, an estimated 809,700 arrests of juveniles under age 18 years (or cases of juvenile delinquency) were reported in the United States (Office of Juvenile Delinquency and Prevention, 2018). Of these, 94,830 (about 12%) were related to drug abuse violations (Office of Juvenile Delinquency and Prevention, 2018), Substance use is quite common in juveniles with almost two-thirds reporting use of alcohol by 12th grade (Johnson, O'Malley, Bachman, Schulenberg, & Miech, 2014) and 14% of high schoolers reporting illicit drug use (Centers for Disease Control & Prevention[CDC], 2018). There seems to be a bidirectional relationship between alcohol and drug abuse and juvenile delinquency. Alcohol has been found to be associated with aggression among adolescents, particularly males, which may contribute to delinquency (Siciliano, Mezzasalma, Lorenzoni, Pieroni, & Molinaro, 2013; White, Fite, Pardini, Mun, & Loeber, 2013). Alcohol use has also been linked with sexually violent offences (Brown & Burton, 2010). It has been documented that involvement with alcohol and drugs increases the likelihood of involvement with the juvenile justice system (Murray & Belenko, 2005). Stress is also a primary risk factor for juvenile delinquency which is also related to substance use making a triadic reciprocal linkage between these factors (Jeon & Chun, 2017).

Keywords

Alcohol and youth; Alcohol education; Alcoholism; Drug abuse; Drug education; Juvenile delinquency; Juvenile drinking

Disciplines

Medicine and Health Sciences | Public Health | Public Health Education and Promotion

Language

English


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