Alcohol, drugs and crime : a study of juveniles in detention

Jeremy Prichard and Jason Payne
ISBN 0 642 53891 3 ; ISSN 1326-6004
Canberra: Australian Institute of Criminology: 2005
(Research and public policy series, no. 67)

Conclusions

This report is an important step forward in deepening our understanding of the impact alcohol and drugs have on young Australians and their offending behaviour. For some years, the National Drug Strategy Household Survey has provided snapshots of substance use among youths in the general population (AIHW, 2005). This DUCO juvenile study also represents a snapshot of juveniles in detention, although it has focused on a sub-group of the country's youths, that is, those aged 10 to 17 years who were sentenced to, or remanded in, detention in all jurisdictions between December 2003 and December 2004. As noted, these youths probably represent the most chronic substance abusers and offenders in their age bracket.

At first glance the detainees appeared heterogeneous, in that the majority of youths had experimented with most substances and committed most types of crime once. The distinguishing features of the youths' criminal behaviour revolved around the frequency with which they offended. Where high frequency offending is indicative of serious criminality, three main categories of offenders were evident. The least serious were the minority of youths who did not commit any crimes regularly. More serious offenders were those who reported regularly committing property crime. The most serious were the juveniles who, generally in addition to committing regular property crime, regularly engaged in violent crime.

Regarding alcohol and drugs, the detainees' experience with substance abuse dwarfed that of adolescents in the general population. Although it was not possible to confidently gauge levels of substance dependency amongst the juveniles, two thirds of the detainees interviewed were using a substance once or several times a day in the six months before they entered detention. Twenty-nine per cent of youths were regular poly substance users. Importantly, high frequency use of any substance, including alcohol, was found to be closely interrelated with criminal behaviour. Regular offenders (of property and/or violent crime) were more than twice as likely to regularly use substances as non-regular offenders. Conservative estimates suggest that 33 per cent of juveniles were detained for offences caused by their substance abuse.

The youths generally reported beginning substance use and all types of crime between the ages of 10 and 13. The regular violent offenders reported the earliest initiation into substance use, followed by regular property offenders and non-regular offenders; early substance use seems closely related to seriousness of offending. Across the entire group it was difficult to find evidence of a causal stepping stone from substance abuse to crime, or vice versa. However, when the juveniles were analysed according to their Indigenous status, it appeared that substance abuse had an effect on the criminal careers of the non-Indigenous youths. In particular, regular substance use clearly preceded violent offending and regular property offending for this group.

The detainees interviewed had typically faced multiple risk factors in their lives, ranging from abuse in the home and exposure to substance abuse by their family through to short and troubled educational backgrounds. These risk factors were associated with the seriousness of offending. For instance, regular violent offenders reported the highest rates of abuse and neglect in addition to rates of expulsion from school. Early substance use was another clear risk factor; regular offenders were twice as likely as non-regular offenders to have started using substances before grade seven.

Findings from this study underscore the importance of early intervention. Perhaps the most important results are that, generally, the earlier that young people first use substances and engage in crime, the worse their criminal and substance using behaviours will become. The range of the problems associated with juvenile substance use and crime also points to the need for whole-of-government approaches, engaging agencies commonly working outside the criminal justice system including:

• family services;
• parent support and mentoring;
• child abuse and domestic violence treatment;
• housing services; and
• education systems.

Harm reduction strategies and treatments for young people post-release from detention centres could be oriented towards reducing the frequency with which juveniles use substances, especially on a daily basis. Poly-substance use should also be a key concern. Preventing or reducing these behaviours would have positive implications for juvenile crime. The development of effective interventions to reduce alcohol and drug use in juvenile populations would be of value to future research in this area.