NCJ Number
210540
Journal
Substance Use & Misuse Volume: 40 Issue: 7 Dated: 2005 Pages: 879-998
Date Published
2005
Length
120 pages
Annotation
This special edition of the Journal of Substance Use & Misuse contains six articles that highlight innovative strategies in working with high-risk youth.
Abstract
The introduction to this edition underscores the importance of combating drug and alcohol problems among youths entering the juvenile justice system. According to national studies of juvenile arrestees, there is a continuing trend of high rates of substance abuse among juvenile offenders. Other research points to the co-occurrence of substance abuse and mental health problems among juvenile offenders. Experts believe that effectively treating the substance abuse and mental health problems of youthful offenders would reduce overall levels of juvenile criminal behavior and recidivism rates among juvenile offenders, in particular. More specifically, following the introduction to the journal edition, the first article reviews the status of health services research on treating adjudicated adolescent drug users while the second article focuses on lessons learned from the development, implementation, and institutionalization of a community- and school-centered program for high-risk youth. The third article describes the Miami-Dade Juvenile Assessment Center’s (JAC's) Post-Arrest Diversion (PAD) program and the current effort to transform it into a national model and the fourth article provides an overview of the Canadian response to juvenile offenders who have substance abuse problems. The fifth article evaluated client characteristics and post-treatment outcomes among youth admitted to a modified therapeutic community treatment program known as Recovery House (RH). The final article in the edition briefly lists four main unresolved issues that should be addressed in future research, including the need to expand community-based treatment services and the need for increased methodological expertise in evaluating the impacts of drug treatment programs. Tables, figures, footnotes, glossary, references