Substance use by young offenders

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Substance use by young offenders

• Richard Hammersley
• Louise Marsland
• With
• Marie Reid
• John Minkes

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Outline

• Understanding drug use and offending
• The orthodox view
• Risk factor approaches
• Normalisation
• 2 wave longitudinal study of drug use by young
  offenders
• Causes of substance use and offending
• Conclusions

This research was funded by the ESRC and the Home
Office
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What is the question?

• If there is one single change which has
  affected the wellbeing of individuals, families
  and the wider community over the last 30 years,
  it is the substantial growth in the use of drugs,
  and the hard drugs that kill in particular. The
  misery this causes cannot be underestimated. It
  damages the health and life chances of
  individuals it undermines family life, and turns
  law-abiding citizens into thieves, including from
  their own parents and wider family. The use of
  drugs contributes dramatically to the volume of
  crime as users take cash and possessions from
  others in a desperate attempt to raise the money
  to pay the dealers. Blunkett (2002)

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What is the answer?

• To drug use in school referral and probably
  exclusion
• All young offenders to be screened for substance
  abuse
• Problem drug users to be referred to drug
  services within a few days
• Drug testing and treatment orders for offenders
• Web of other orders parenting/ anti-social
  behaviour etc.

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Hold on a minute

• Who is a young person?
• What is substance use?
• Which substance-related problems do young people
  have?
• How could treatments work?
• Why are interventions difficult to implement?

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Under what conditions is substance use by young
people a problem?

• Dependence, abuse or substance related
  problems?
• Age norms
• Drug
• Mind set of user
• Social setting of use
• Conventional, cultural and legal boundaries

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Normalization(Howard Parker Colleagues)

• Cultural incorporation
• Accommodation
• Tolerance
• Wider range of substances
• Weaker boundaries

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Previous relationships between drug use and
offending

• Underpinned by set of common risk factors
• Drug users tended to offend more than non-users
• Those dependent upon heroin (and cocaine) tended
  to offend more than those who did not use drugs
  regularly and were not dependent upon them

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Common Risk Factors(all measured to some extent
here)

• Difficulties with school - including low
  intelligence
• Associating with delinquents
• Having been in care
• Having been abused
• Low psychological well being
• Poor social skills
• A history of age inappropriate behaviour
• A disrupted family background
• Low parental supervision
• Affiliation with religious or other conventional
  social groups or values that are counter to
  substance use may protect
• Specific genetic vulnerabilities

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Design

• Longitudinal study - 293 young offenders from 10
  Youth Offending Teams in England/Wales
• 1st wave - Home Office
• 2nd wave ESRC network 102 re-interviewed

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Instrument

• Self-complete questionnaire
• Substance use, offending, risk factors
• Structured and unstructured questions
• Many pre-validated scales
• One-to-one guidance

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Cohort profile

• Predominantly white males age 15 and 16
• Females were represented proportionally to their
  appearance as YOT clients
• Black and Asian ethnicities were deliberately
  over-represented
• Few findings varied systematically with sex, age
  or ethnicity
• Over represents those with longer offending
  histories and those with greater involvement with
  the YOT

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Recent and lifetime use (wave 1)
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Offence categories committed
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Problems last 2 years (wave 1)
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Life events experienced by different offending
groups
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Summary of First Wave findings

• Drug use had normalised
• Stress, caused by life events and problems is a
  key correlate of drugs and crime
• Heroin and Cocaine were relatively unfrequent and
  not related to offending
• Heavy alcohol, cannabis (and tobacco) use was the
  most common form of substance misuse

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Second Wave

• Design of analyses
• Use First Wave variables to predict Second Wave
  variables in regression analyses.
• Many variables included in analyses
• Substance use increases during ages 15-19. Hence
• Substance use measures were transformed into
  changes in ranked scores prior to analyses
• This measures increase or decrease relative to
  the cohort average at each time point, rather
  than absolute values, correcting for aging
  effects.
• If you care (1) Rank scores at wave 1 (2) Rank
  scores at wave 2 (3) subtract wave 2 ranks from
  wave 1 ranks.

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Predictors of offending

• People reporting more offending at first wave
  also offended more at second wave.
• People reporting more stress between waves
  offended more at second wave.
• Other risk factors were not predictive.

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Predictors of changes in substance use

• Heaviest users at wave 1 reduced their use most.
• Addictive type drugs not predictable.
• Neither stress nor other variables had effects.
• Norm was to increase substance use.
• 24 showed some signs of dependence at wave 2 (9
  of these at wave 1 too).

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Role of dependence
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Stress and dependence
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Alternative Pathways

• Normalisation Substance use increases without
  implications for delinquency.
• Offending and heavy substance use as a temporary
  response to stress that reduces when stress
  reduces.
• Dependence develops, including increased
  offending and more stress.

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Cognitive level
Stress
Dependence
Crime norms
Drug norms
Repeat offending
Exposure to drugs
Crimogenic exposure
Drug use
Social Exclusion
Bonding
Problem substance use
Life problems
Social level
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Concluding thoughts

• Need rethinking of norms for substance use
  increase is not always problematic.
• Escape drinking (and drug use)
• Dependence is a state of mind the effect not
  the cause
• Generational issues regarding norms
• Cannabis and alcohol Worse than the sum of the
  parts?
• Heroin and cocaine not important for young
  offenders will they become so?
• Early intervention without discrimination and
  labelling
• Stress management

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References

• Hammersley, R., Marsland, L. Reid, M. (2003)
  Substance Use By Young Offenders The Impact Of
  The Normalization Of Drug Use In The Early Years
  Of The 21st Century. Home Office Research Study
  261, London, Home Office Research and Statistics
  Directorate.
• Hammersley, R., Minkes, J., Reid, M., Oliver, A.,
  Genova, A. Raynor, P. (2004) Drug and alcohol
  projects for young offenders The evaluation of
  development fund projects funded by the Youth
  Justice Board. London, Youth Justice Board.
• Hammersley, R., Reid, M., Minkes, J. Treating
  young offenders substance use problems
  Systemic, methodological and conceptual issues.
  Journal of Educational and Child Psychology. In
  press.
• Minkes, J., Hammersley, R. Raynor. P. (2005)
  Partnership in working with young offenders with
  substance misuse problems. Howard Journal, 44,
  254-268.