Adolescent criminality: multiple adverse health outcomes and mortality pattern in Swedish men

Injuries, Poisonings, and Other External Causes of Morbidity among Drug Crime Offenders: A Follow-Up Study of Former Adolescent Psychiatric Inpatients

INTRODUCTION

Criminal offenders have high incidences of injury- and substance-related emergency department visits. Very few studies focus on drug crime offenders or the medical specialties involved in treating these offenders. We aimed to study how drug crime offenders' treatment events in specialized health care due to injuries, poisonings, or other external causes of morbidity differed from treatment of non-criminal controls and which of the medical specialties were involved in their care.

METHODS

The study population included 508 former adolescent psychiatric inpatients (age 13-17 years), who were followed up through Finnish national registers. A total of 60 had committed a drug crime during the 10-15 years' follow-up. They were matched with 120 non-criminal controls from the study population. Hazard ratios (HRs) with 95% confidence intervals (Cl) for drug crime offending were assessed using a Cox regression model.

RESULTS

Almost 90% of drug crime offenders had treatment events in specialized health care due to injuries, poisonings, and other external causes of morbidity, compared to 50% of non-criminals. The majority of the drug crime offenders had been treated for accidental injuries (65% vs. 29%; p < 0.001) in comparison to non-criminal controls. More drug crime offenders had been treated for intentional poisonings (42% vs. 11%; p < 0.001) than non-criminal controls. For drug crime offenders, the lifetime probability of a treatment event due to poisoning was almost doubled (HR: 1.89, 95% CI: 1.26-2.84; p = 0.002), and for treatments due to injury, there was a 2.5-fold increase (HR: 2.54, 95% CI: 1.69-3.82; p < 0.001) in comparison to non-criminal controls.

CONCLUSION

In emergency care, substance use screening and referral for appropriate psychiatric and substance abuse treatment services should be considered for all adolescents and young adults attending hospitals due to injuries or poisonings.

Unmet financial obligations and alcohol-related mortality: A nationwide register-based follow-up study

This study sets out to explore whether experiencing financial indebtedness is related to alcohol-related mortality. For this purpose, people aged between 20 and 64 having a registration date for a debt in the Swedish Enforcement Authority's register during 2015 (n = 48,541) were followed up for a five-year period for alcohol-related mortality and were compared with a sample from the general Swedish population (n = 261,148). On the basis of logistic regression analysis, it is shown that people who had experienced financial indebtedness were almost two and a half times more likely to suffer from alcohol-related death than those who had not lived through this experience (OR = 2.43), controlling for several demographic, socio-economic, and health conditions prior to the date of the registration at the Enforcement Authority. The results provide support for the notion that debt repayment problems may, in itself, be an important indicator to consider in the study of alcohol-related harm. Consequently, debt counselling and other programs directed toward mitigating debt-related stress may play an important role in alleviating the adverse effects of indebtedness.

Hospitalisation following therapeutic community drug and alcohol treatment for young people with and without a history of criminal conviction

INTRODUCTION

This study examines the association between treatment in a therapeutic community for adolescents with drug and alcohol problems on hospitalisation outcomes up to 15 years later for all clients, and separately for those with and without a history of criminal conviction.

METHOD

A quasi-experimental design was used to examine the linked administrative health and criminal justice records for all adolescents admitted to the Program for Adolescent Life Management (PALM) from January 2001 to December 2016 (n = 3059) in Sydney, Australia. ICD-10AM codes were used to designate hospitalisation outcomes as either physical injury, mental health problems, substance use disorders, or organic illness. The treatment and comparison groups were matched on factors associated with program retention, resulting in a final sample of 1266 clients. We examined the rate of hospitalisation up to 15 years posttreatment for all clients and stratified by prior conviction status using Cox regression analyses.

RESULTS

The treatment group had significantly lower rates of hospitalisation for a physical injury (HR = 0.77 [95% CI = 0.61-0.98]), mental health problem (HR = 0.62 [95% CI = 0.47-0.81]), substance use disorder (HR = 0.59 [95% CI = 0.47-0.75]), and organic illness (HR = 0.71 [95% CI = 0.55-0.92]). There was a significant interaction between treatment and prior criminal conviction status on rate of hospitalisation for physical injury, suggesting that the effect of treatment on physical injury was significantly greater for clients with a prior criminal conviction.

CONCLUSIONS

Adolescents who engage in a therapeutic community treatment program may have a long-lasting reduction in the risk of subsequent hospitalisation. This also appears to apply to those with a history of criminal conviction.

The Explanation of Adolescent Delinquent Behaviors Based on Jessor's Problem Behavior Theory (PBT) in Iran: The Role of Individual Vulnerability, Opportunity Risk Availability, and Perceived Support

This study tested the generality of Problem Behavior Theory (PBT) in explaining adolescents' problem behavior in Iran. Data were collected from 392 adolescents (Mage = 15.97, SD = 1.12, 55.4% girls) who completed the Adolescent Health and Development Questionnaire (AHDQ) to assess the individual vulnerability, opportunity risk availability, perceived support, and delinquent behaviors. Results indicated that individual vulnerability and opportunity risk availability had a significant relationship with delinquent behaviors and a significant interaction with perceived support in their influence on delinquent behaviors. Further, perceived support was negatively associated with delinquent behaviors. Our results were consistent with PBT's explanatory model for adolescents' problem behavior in Western countries and are informative about problem behavior involvement among Iranian adolescents and the design of interventions.

The contribution of methamphetamine use to crime: Evidence from Australian longitudinal data

BACKGROUND

To quantify the extent to which methamphetamine use is associated with increases in crime net of any premorbid risk of criminality among people who use the drug.

METHODS

Four one-month data panels from 469 participants dependent on methamphetamine were drawn from the MATES cohort (N = 501). Odds ratios for within-person effects were extracted from a random intercept logistic regression model for crime during periods of methamphetamine use compared to no use. Effects were adjusted for time-varying measures of age, other substance use, and socio-economic disadvantage (income, unemployment and unstable accommodation). Involvement in crime (property crime, drug dealing, fraud, violent crime) and days of methamphetamine in the past month were assessed using the Opiate Treatment Index.

RESULTS

Crime was more likely during months when participants used methamphetamine compared to when they did not (OR 13.2 95% CI 8.5-20.6; AOR 4.7 95% CI 2.8-8.0), this reflecting more property crime (OR 10.6 95% CI 6.3-18.0; AOR 5.5 95% CI 2.8-10.8), violent crime (OR 8.2 95% CI 4.2-15.9; AOR 3.4 95% CI 1.5-8.0), fraud (OR 3.4, 95% CI 2.0-5.8; AOR 1.7 95% CI 0.8-3.3) and dealing drugs (OR 18.2 95% CI 10.2-32.5; AOR 5.9 95% CI 3.0-11.9), although the adjusted relationship for fraud was not significant. Effects were dose related.

CONCLUSIONS

The use of methamphetamine was associated with significant increases in crime beyond premorbid risk for criminality. Crime is a likely social consequence of methamphetamine use and efforts are needed to reduce this impact.

CONTINUING EDUCATION: TOWARD A LIFE-COURSE PERSPECTIVE ON SOCIAL LEARNING

Sutherland's differential association theory and the life course perspective have at times been conceptualized as contrasting theories of criminal behavior. I argue instead that our understanding of delinquency, the dynamics underlying criminal persistence and desistance, and intergenerational patterns, will be enhanced by a more explicit integration of these two traditions. I focus on family processes, as these are foundational intimate relationships that remain underappreciated as a source of lifelong learning and influence. While family support and variations in parental supervision have been amply investigated, 'direct transmission' takes place within the family as well as within the confines of the more heavily studied world of adolescent peer groups. I identify five dimensions of direct transmission, and illustrate these dynamic processes with qualitative data from two longitudinal studies and results of recent quantitative analyses. The analysis is generally in line with Sutherland's original formulation, but includes several extensions and modifications. It is important to include a role for human agency, and for 'non-criminal' definitions and lifestyle factors, in addition to the directly criminogenic definitions Sutherland and subsequent researchers have emphasized. The focus on social processes is, however, consistent with Sutherland's goal of highlighting limitations of psychological and biological differences explanations.