Substance Use and the Trajectory of Delinquency Among Young Males

• NCJ Number: 196452
• Journal: Journal of Crime & Justice Volume: 25 Issue: 1 Dated: 2002 Pages: 99-121
• Author(s): Lening Zhang; Jeff W. Welte; William F. Wieczorek
• Editor(s): J. Mitchell Miller
• Date Published: 2002
• Length: 23 pages
• Grant Number(s): R01 AA08157
• Sponsoring Agency: US Dept of Health and Human Services
• Publication Format: Article
• Publication Type: Research Paper
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

This article presents a study on the role of substance abuse in life-course deviance.

Abstract

Noting that prior research has indicated that many juvenile delinquents mature out of law breaking and deviant behaviors, the authors studied the impact that substance abuse may have in predicting or preventing that juveniles will age out of criminal behavior. The authors reference past research that has shown a relationship between substance abuse and criminal behavior in general. Several studies have already shown a link between persistent substance abuse and persistent delinquency, however, the relationships shown in the research have been inconsistent. Data for this article were collected from three waves of the Buffalo Longitudinal Survey of Young Men (BLSYM) conducted between 1993 and 1997. Six hundred twenty-five respondents aged 16- to 19-years-old from that survey were used in the present study. 2 tables, 3 notes, 37 references, 2 appendices