NCJ Number
192137
Date Published
November 2001
Length
64 pages
Annotation
This report analyzes data from the 1998/99 British Youth Lifestyles Survey (YLS), which focused on levels of drug use by vulnerable youth, such as serious and persistent offenders, homeless youth, serial runaways, and school truants and those suspended from school.
Abstract
Among the subsample of youth aged 12 to 16 in the YLS, there were higher rates of drug use for truants and those suspended from school compared with those routinely attending school. The prevalence of drug use was generally higher for female than for male truants and suspendees. Three-quarters of serious and/or persistent offenders had used an illicit drug in their lifetime, and nearly three-fifths had done so in the last year. This compares with a quarter and one-seventh respectively for non-offenders. Eighty percent of those who had ever been homeless had tried an illicit drug, compared with 53 percent of those who had never been homeless. Over 80 percent of serial runaways (those leaving home more than once) had ever used illicit drugs, compared with 42 percent of youth who had never runaway from home. Increased prevalence of drug use seemed to persist into later life for these youth. Drug use by parents was rare, although similar to rates for comparable age groups. The analysis concludes that the levels of use and ease of access to drugs were consistently higher for vulnerable groups of youth, although it was not always possible to control for other potentially confounding factors. This report recommends that the performance of the British Government's anti-drugs strategy should continue to include a focus on groups of youth at particularly high risk for developing problematic drug use. Extensive tables and 88 references