Substance Misuse and Young Offenders Richard Hammersley Louise
Substance Misuse and Young Offenders Richard Hammersley Louise Marsland University of Essex European Criminology Conference August 2004
Substance Misuse and Young Offenders n Longitudinal study - 297 young offenders from 10 Youth Offending Teams in England/Wales n 1 st wave - Home Office n 2 nd wave – ESRC network European Criminology Conference August 2004
Aim To examine patterns of substance misuse amongst young offenders and identify relationships between substance misuse, offending and personal and social risk factors European Criminology Conference August 2004
Instrument n Self-complete questionnaire n Substance use, offending, risk factors n Structured and unstructured questions n Many pre-validated scales n One-to-one guidance European Criminology Conference August 2004
Cohort profile n n n Predominantly white males age 15 and 16 Females were represented proportionally to their appearance as YOT clients Black and Asian ethnicities were deliberately overrepresented Few findings varied systematically with sex, age or ethnicity Over represents those with longer offending histories and those with greater involvement with the YOT European Criminology Conference August 2004
Nature of substance use European Criminology Conference August 2004
Factors for substance use frequency n Socially accepted (alcohol, cannabis, tobacco) n Addictive type (heroin & methadone, also crack cocaine & valium) n Stimulant and polydrug use European Criminology Conference August 2004
Predictors of offending Offending in last 12 mths predicted by: n Life events experienced in last 2 yrs n Expecting to be in trouble again by 25 n Low positive coping n Socially accepted substances European Criminology Conference August 2004
Predictors of substance use Substance use only modestly predicted (least of all ‘socially accepted’) n Life events experienced in last 2 years n Expecting to be in trouble again by 25 n Low school affiliation European Criminology Conference August 2004
Life events experienced by different offending groups European Criminology Conference August 2004
Summary of findings and future challenges Substance use and offending correlated n Both predicted by life events n Main drugs – alcohol and cannabis n n Is substance use: Cause? n Effect? n Coping? n Function of age? n n Explore association between risk factors and persistence and desistence in offending European Criminology Conference August 2004
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