Drug Use and Delinquency

JUVENILE

DELINQUENCY

THE CORE 5E

Chapter 10:

Drug Use and

Delinquency

Marijuana and Hashish

 Marijuana

 Produced from the leaves of cannabis

sativa

 Hashish

 Concentrated form of cannabis made of

unadulterated resin from the female plant

 Main ingredient in both is tetrahydrocannabinol

(THC)

 A mild hallucinogen

 Most commonly used drug by teenagers

 Large amounts causes distortions that produce

hallucinatory effects

 Not physically addictive, but long term effects debatable

Cocaine, Crack & Heroin

 Cocaine

 Alkaloid derivative of the coca plant

 Most powerful natural stimulant that produces euphoria, restlessness,

and excitement

 It can be sniffed, snorted, or injected

 Immediate feeling or rush is short lived

 Crack

 Processed street cocaine

 Gained popularity in the mid-1980s

 Relatively inexpensive

 Can provide a powerful high and is highly addictive

 Heroin

 Most dangerous commonly abused drug

Alcohol  Drug of choice for most teenagers

 64% of high school seniors reported abusing it in the past year

 70% say they have tried it

 By the 12th grade, 51% reported having been drunk

 Negatively impacts society

 Factor in nearly half of all murders, suicides, and accidental deaths

 1.4 million drivers are arrested each year for D.U.I.

 840,000 more are arrested for alcohol-related offenses

 The economic cost is staggering: $185 billion lost lost each year

 Impact on Health

 Long term use is linked to depression and physical ailments, ranging from heart disease to cirrhosis of the liver

 Perceived Benefits

 Reduces tension, enhances pleasure, improves social skills, and some claim it transforms experiences for the better

Other Drugs

 Anesthetic Drugs

 Central nervous system depressants

 Most widely abused is phencyclidine (PCP), aka angel dust

 Inhalants

 Some youths inhale vapors that cause a euphoric feeling that is

followed by disorientation, slurred speech, and drowsiness

 Sedatives and barbiturates

 Depress the central nervous system, creating a sleeplike condition

 Tranquillizers

 Reduce anxiety and promote relaxation

 Overuse can lead to addiction, and withdrawal can be painful and

hazardous

Other Drugs

• Hallucinogens

• Provide vivid distortions of the senses without greatly disturbing the viewers consciousness

• Examples of common hallucinogens: • Mescaline

• LSD

• Stimulants

• Synthetic drugs that increase blood pressure, breathing rate, bodily activity, and elevate mood

• Methedrine is the most widely used dangerous amphetamine • aka “meth”, “speed”, “crystal meth”

• Economic cost of meth use in the U.S. exceeds $23

billion a year

Other Drugs

 Steroids  Anabolic steroids are used to gain muscle bulk and strength

 Black market sales approach $1 billion annually

 Cause health problems such as liver ailments, tumors, kidney problems, sexual dysfunctions, hypertension and depression

 Designer Drugs  Some designer drugs are synthetically created in labs for the

purpose of temporarily circumventing existing drug laws (ex: bathsalts)

 Ecstasy: Acts simultaneously as a stimulant and hallucinogen

 Cigarettes  2/5 high school seniors in America have smoked cigarettes in their

lifetime

 There has been a consistent decline in recent years

Figure 10.1 trends in annual prevalence of illicit

drug use

13-year-old Died of Drug Overdose –

Current Example

Drug Use Today

 Monitoring the Future Survey:

 Annual survey carried out by the Institute for Social Research at the

U. of Michigan

 Drug use among American adolescents declined since its peak in

1996 and 1997

 Significant drop in alcohol use by the youngest kids

 Decline in cigarette smoking and smokeless tobacco use

Drug Use Today

• Pride (Parents Research Institute from Drug Education) Survey:

• Found that 2009-2010 school year experienced small to moderate reductions in drug activities

• Substantial decreases over the last 10 years

• National Survey on Drug Use and Health:

• Drug and alcohol use has stabilized or declined

• “Heavy drinking” reported by 7% of youth 12 and over (17 million people) • 2% of youth aged 12 to 17 were heavy drinkers and 8%

engaged in binge drinking

• Marijuana use is currently more common among male youths than female youths

Table 10.1 annual drug use,

2000–2001 versus 2009–2010, grades 6–12

Are Survey Results Accurate?

 Data must be interpreted with caution

 Heavy users not expected to fully cooperate

 Drug-abusing students are more likely to be absent from school

during testing periods

 Drug abusers are more likely to be forgetful

 Most drug-dependent portion of the adolescent population is

omitted from the sample

 Accuracy of reporting may be affected by social and

personal traits:

 Girls and kids from single-parent homes are less likely to admit

taking drugs

Why Do Youths Take Drugs?

 Social Disorganization

 Ties drug abuse to poverty, social disorganization, and

hopelessness

 Drug use by minorities tied to racial prejudice, low self-esteem,

poor socioeconomic status, and stress of living in a harsh, urban

environment

 Poverty linked to high level of mistrust and defiance

 Empirical data on the relationship between class and crime is

inconclusive

 National Youth Survey found little, if any, association

between drug use and social class

Why Do Youths Take Drugs?

• Peer Pressure

• Adolescent drug abuse is highly correlated to the behavior of best

friends, especially when parental supervision is weak

• Youth’s association with friends who are substance

abusers increases the probability of drug use

• Relationship is reciprocal

• Peer networks may be the most significant influence on

long term substance abuse

Why Do Youths Take Drugs?

 Family Factors

 Drug users often have a poor family life

 Majority have an unhappy childhood characterized by harsh

punishment and parental neglect

 May involve racial and gender differences:

 Females and European Americans who suffered abuse as children were

more likely to have alcohol and drug arrests as adults

 Abuse less likely to affect drug use in males and African Americans

 May also result from observation of parental drug use

Why Do Youths Take Drugs?

 Genetic Factors

 Biological children of alcoholics reared by nonalcoholic adoptive

parents are found to be more more likely to develop alcohol

problems than natural children of adoptive parents

 Identical twins twice as likely as fraternal twins to have similar drug-

usage

 Future substance abuse can be predicted by behavior as early as 6

years of age

Why Do Youths Take Drugs?

 Emotional Problems

 Drugs help youth control or express unconscious needs

 Drug abusers often have an addiction-prone personality, which

indicates that the cause of substance abuse may be traced to a

compulsive need for mood-altering drugs

 Research of narcotic abusers suggest a significant percentage

suffer from psychotic disorders

 Half of all drug abusers may also be diagnosed with antisocial

personality disorders

Why Do Youths Take Drugs?

 Problem Behavior Syndrome

 Substance abuse just one of many problems that begin early in life

and persist throughout

 Youths who abuse drugs are often maladjusted, emotionally

distressed, and suffer from other social problems

 Youths who abuse drugs believed to lack commitment

 Dedicate most of their time to peer activities (rather than

family/school/work/community)

 Do poorly in school

 Experience high drop out rates

Why Do Youths Take Drugs?

 Rational choice

 Youths may choose to use drugs to:

 Get high

 Relax

 Improve their creativity

 Escape reality

 Increase their sexual responsiveness

 Rational choice theory views experimental drug use with less

concern than other theories

 Purports to maintain a realistic perspective on teenage drug use, as

opposed to an overly reactionary, negative stance

Medicating Our Children –

Current Example

Pathways to Drug Abuse

• Gateway drugs:

• Substances that lead to use of more serious drugs • Drinking with an adult present is a significant

precursor of later substance abuse and delinquency

• Serious drug users typically start with alcohol

• Drug dealing and drug use:

• Adolescents who distribute small amounts of drugs usually do not commit any serious delinquent acts

• Frequent dealers often have adults who front for them – sell them drugs for cash

• Frequent dealers are more likely to sell drugs in parks, schools, or other public places

• Most small-time dealers hold conventional jobs

Drug Dealing and Delinquency

• Most serious drug-involved youths distribute multiple

substances and commit property and violent crimes

• Represent only 2% of the teenage population but commit 40% of

robberies/assaults and 60% of all felony thefts/drug sales

• Few gender or racial differences exist

• Turbulent environment of drug dealing is more lucrative

when ran by flexible organizations, rather than

rigidly-ruled gangs

Persistent Offenders

 About 2/3 of substance abusing youths continue to use drugs

into adulthood

 1/2 desist from other criminal activities

 Persistent Offenders:

 Often come from poor families

 Family members often include other criminals

 Typically do poorly in school

 Started using drugs and committing other delinquent acts at an early

age

 Use multiple types of drugs and commit crimes frequently

 Have few opportunities in late adolescence to participate in legitimate

and rewarding adult activities

Drug Use and Delinquency

 Association between drug use and delinquency has been definitively

established and can take a number of forms:

 Crime may be an instrument of the drug trade

 Users may also commit crimes to pay for their habits

 Users may be more willing to take risks, as inhibitions are lowered by

substance abuse

 The National Institute of Justices Arrestee Drug Abuse Monitoring

(ADAM) tracked trends in drug use among arrestees in urban areas

 Most recent report (2002) found that almost 60% of juvenile males and 30% of

juvenile females tested positive for marijuana

 With the exception of methamphetamines, males more likely than females to

test positive for the use of all other drug

 Higher levels of youth problem behaviors and delinquency are

associated with drug use and distribution

Explaining Drug Use and Delinquency

 It is far from certain whether:

 (a) drug use causes delinquency

 (b) delinquency leads youths to engage in substance abuse

 (c) both drug abuse and delinquency are functions of some other

factor

 Institute Of Behavioral Science found important

associations between substance abuse and delinquency:

 Alcohol abuse leads to marijuana and other drug abuse

 Most users started with alcohol, and youths who abstain from alcohol

almost never take other drugs

 Marijuana leads to more dangerous drug use

 95% of youths who use serious drugs reported to have started on pot

 Youths who commit felonies started off with minor delinquent acts

Drug Control Strategies

• Billions of dollars spent annually to reduce the importation

of drugs, deter drug dealers and treat users

• A number of strategies deter drug use by stopping the flow of drugs

into the country, apprehending dealers, and cracking down on

street-level drug dealers

• Another approach is educating potential users and convincing them

to “say no” to drugs

• A third approach is to treat users so they can cease buying and

using drugs

Law Enforcement Efforts

 Source control

 Designed to punish known dealers and users and to deter those

who are thinking of entering the drug trade

 Border Control

 Designed to intercept drug supplies as they enter the country

 Targets internet drug traffickers from foreign countries

 Targeting Dealers

 Efforts focus on drug trafficking and busting large scale drug rings

 Police street-level busts of dealers/users can be too much of a

hassle

 Drug sweeps have overcrowded correctional facilities and

drained police resources

Education Strategies

• Educational programs aimed at reducing teenage

substance abuse

• Begins in kindergarten and extends through the 12th grade

• According to the National Youth Anti-Drug Media

Campaign, most 7th-12th graders “agree a lot” that

anti-drug ads made them less likely to try or use drugs

Community Strategies

 Programs reach out to youths at the highest risk

 One of the most successful community-based programs to prevent

substance abuse and delinquency is provided by the Boys and

Girls Clubs of America:

 SMART targets the pressures to try drugs/alcohol

 Provides education to parents in the community to assist youth in

learning about the dangers of substance abuse and strategies for

resisting the pressures to use drugs and alcohol

Treatment Strategies

• More than 130,000 youths ages

12 to 17 are admitted to treatment

facilities in the U.S.

• 52% are referred through the juvenile justice system

• Several approaches are available to treat users

• Multi-systemic therapy (MST) • Focuses on direct attention to family, peer, and

psychological problems through problem solving and

communication skills

• Outdoor activities, wilderness training, and after school community programs

• UCLA’s Comprehensive Residential Education, Arts, and Substance Abuse Treatment Program

Diagnosing & Treating Children –

Current Example

Harm Reduction

 Makes drug treatment facilities readily available,

without fear of punishment, for anyone who

wishes to overcome their habit and live a drug free life

 Use of health professionals to administer drugs to addicts is part of a

treatment and detoxification program

 Needle Exchange Programs slow the transmission of HIV and educate

users about how HIV is contracted and spread

 Special Drug courts or pretrial diversion programs compel drug

treatment

 Critics warn that this approach condones/promotes drug use

 Encourages people to either continue/start using drugs without

recognizing the dangers

 Advocates see it as a variable interim measure in dealing with

drug use

What Does The Future Hold?

 U.S. appears willing to go to great lengths to keep fighting

the drug war

 Prevention, deterrence, and treatment strategies ignore the core

reasons for the majority of drug problems:

 Poverty, alienation, and family disruption

 Legalization of drugs would decriminalize drug use to

reduce the association between drug use and crime

 In the short-term this approach could have grave consequences

Summary

Know the most frequently abused drugs

Understand the extent of the drug problem

Know the principle explanations for why some youths take

drugs

Recognize typical behavioral patterns of drug abusing

youth

Understand the relationship between drug use and

delinquency

Be familiar with drug control strategies

Argue pros and cons of different strategies