Purpose Juvenile offenders are at heightened risk of death in adolescence and young adulthood compared to adolescents in the general population. The current study extends previous research by testing the joint contributions of distal (historical and demographic characteristics) and proximal (closer to the time of the death) predictors of mortality. We also tested and whether proximal variables were potential mediators of the effects of distal variables on mortality. Methods Participants were 1,354 serious juvenile offenders, 45 (3.32%) of whom were deceased by the completion of the study. Data were collected through self-reports and official records. Results Significant distal predictors of mortality were being African-American and having a history of substance use disorder. Proximal predictors that added significantly to prediction included gun carrying, gang membership, and substance use problems. Potential mediators of the effects of substance use disorder history were continuing substance use problems and gang membership. However, proximal variables could not explain the heightened risk for African-Americans. Conclusions Gang membership, gun carrying, and substance use problems are risk factors for early mortality among juvenile offenders, but they do not explain the elevated risk for death among African Americans. Thus, further research is needed to understand the mechanisms underlying risk for premature death among African-American adolescent offenders. Implications and contributions Findings suggest that interventions to reduce substance use problems, gang membership, and gun carrying have the potential to reduce risk of mortality for serious juvenile offenders. However, these factors cannot explain the heightened risk for death among African-American participants.

The high rates of substance disorders in the juvenile justice system, as well as the relation between substance use and reoffending, suggest the importance of substance use treatment service and understanding the factors that influence treatment provision. The current study tested whether race/ethnicity affects the relation between substance use disorder diagnosis and the receipt of substance use treatment services among a sample of male serious juvenile offenders (N=638). Findings showed that among adolescents with a substance use disorder diagnosis, there were no race/ethnicity differences in substance use treatment receipt. However, among adolescents without a substance use disorder diagnosis, non-Hispanic Caucasians were more likely to receive substance use treatment than were Hispanics or African-Americans. Additionally, findings showed that there were race/ethnicity differences in service receipt at moderate levels of substance use problems, such that non-Hispanic Caucasians were more likely to receive substance use treatment than Hispanics or African-Americans. There were no race/ethnicity differences in treatment receipt when substance use problems were either very severe or very low. Results suggest that race/ethnicity may play a role in service provision in the juvenile justice system when levels of need are less clear.

Substance use and substance use disorders are highly prevalent in the juvenile justice system and represent important risk factors for both the onset and the maintenance of juvenile offending. Indeed, of the 1.6 million juvenile arrests in 2010, almost 17% resulted from substance use-related crimes, including drug abuse violations (e.g., selling, manufacturing, or possessing drugs; 10.4%), driving under the influence (0.74%), liquor law violations (5.8%), and drunkenness (0.78%; Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, 2014). In addition, substance use increases the likelihood for other, nondrug offending in adolescence (D'Amico, Edelen, Miles, & Morral, 2008;Johnston, O'Malley, Bachman, & Schulenberg, 2005). Furthermore, juvenile offenders with persistent substance use or substance use disorders have been shown to have more frequent correctional stays and to stay longer in these correctional settings than do their non-substance-using peers (Anderson, Ramo, Cummins, & Brown, 2010). Aside from the implications of substance use for offending behavior, substance use and substance use disorders create risk for a broad range of other negative outcomes for adolescent offenders.Conversely, substance use disorder treatment and recovery in adolescent offenders have both been associated with numerous positive outcomes in both the short and the long term (