Substance use and the prediction of young offender recidivism

Abstract

The problem considered is whether self-reported substance use can be used in the estimation of recidivism risk among youths placed in secure care. The Secure Care Psychosocial Screening (SECAPS) and offending records of 447 youths admitted to detention centres in South Australia were examined. The target outcome was any new offending within 6 months of release. Use of a psychoactive substance at the time of committing the most recent offence was not a significant predictor of subsequent offending, nor was acknowledging having a problem with drug or alcohol use. In relation to the recent use of alcohol, marijuana, hallucinogens, sedatives/hypnotics, narcotics, stimulants and inhalants, only the use of alcohol and inhalants appeared to have significant relationships with recidivism. While the relationships were too small to permit using these items on their own to estimate re-offending risk, recent alcohol and inhalant use could be included as part of a broader recidivism risk assessment. [Putniņs AL. Substance use and the prediction of young offender recidivism.

Connections Program Patients: A Descriptive Analysis of the Reintegration Needs of Incarcerated Substance Users

“…Patients who remained in the community were also those who refrained from or limited their drug use (compared to the RTC group), who were more likely to be compliant with their psychiatric medications and other health treatments, who had more stable housing and who were more likely to be engaged with training or education; These findings are consistent with the existing literature [11,12,[24][25][26]. Indeed, Bradley and colleagues [24] suggest that housing stability and compliance with medical treatment are likely to be related.…”

“…Similarly, in keeping with the findings of [10] housing instability was more common among those who returned to custody by follow-up, as was a tendency to disengage from required physical and mental health treatments. Our results also support the existence of a link between substance use and reoffending [11][12][13], with those returning to custody being significantly more likely to use drugs and to use more different drugs than those who did not return to custody prior to follow-up. Indeed, overall, the data suggest a relationship between short term reintegration success and the number of transitional problems experienced to the extent that those returning to custody reported experiencing a greater number of transitional problems-most frequently in the domains of substance use (61.5%), housing (35.9%) and relationships (25.6%).…”

“…Substance abuse has also been found to be a significant contributor to reoffending; however rates of recidivism vary depending on the type of drug and frequency of use [11,12]. For example, in the Drug Use Monitoring Australia (DUMA) study, 45% of the participants reported that drug and alcohol abuse had contributed to their current offence [13].…”

“…Among juveniles, drug and alcohol use is also a significant contributor to offending behaviour. For example, Putnins [11] identified a significant relationship between alcohol and recidivism. It was found that six months following release from juvenile detention, those who frequently engaged in alcohol use were up to 77% more likely to reoffend compared to those whose alcohol use was less frequent.…”

Trajectoires délinquantes des adolescents du Saguenay-Lac-Saint-Jean :

“…Toutefois, on constate qu'un lien est souvent apparent entre la consommation de drogues et le passage à l'acte chez les participants, que ce soit lorsque le délit est commis dans le but de se procurer de la drogue ou lorsque la drogue influence le passage à l'acte en raison de son effet désinhibiteur. On remarque également que la consommation de drogues chez les participants a débuté et cessé à peu près au même moment que leurs comportements délinquants, ce qui concorde avec les données recueillies dans plusieurs autres études qui ont clairement démontré l'existence d'une association drogue-crime (Brochu, 2006;Putnins, 2003;Stoolmiller & Blechman, 2005;Sullivan & Hamilton, 2007;Tremblay, Brunelle & Blanchette-Martin, 2007;Welte, Barnes, Hoffman, Wieczorek & Zhang, 2005;Wiesner & Windle, 2006;Wilson, Rojas, Haapanen, Duxbury & Steiner, 2001). Même si les jeunes de la présente étude ne perçoivent pas nécessairement une association entre leurs comportements délinquants et leur (Bellot, 2005;Brunelle, Cousineau & Brochu, 2002;DelensRavier, 2005 (LeBlanc, 2003a;Tarolla, Wagner, Rabinowitz & Tubman, 2002;Wooldredge, 1991).…”