Juvenile Deliquency and Substance Abuse

Juvenile delinquency or juvenile offending is the word used to describe underage individuals who participate in the mentioned activities or just any other mischievousness (Barga, Sharkova & Kohlenberg, 2014). People who are delinquent usually have antisocial opinions about everything, they are often participating in activities that are dangerous and end up harming others, and the most apparent thing about them is that they are very outspoken in their rejections of punishments related to their wrongdoings. In most cases, for the young individuals, there is a connection between delinquent behaviors and substance abuse and this paper will look into the relationship between juvenile delinquency and substance abuse. Some of the areas the report will look into are the causes, trends, prevalence, characteristics of the delinquents, some theories that may explain the relationship, and the current controversies.

Many young delinquents seek out activities that are antisocial or activities that are considered illegal. The legal system provided less alternatines and therefore the teenagers irrespective of their gender and age, they were placed together with hardcore older criminals and the mentally ill people in poor managed correctional facilities. In most instances, their actions did not match the cruel treatment. The judgment still did not provide the expected outcomes regarding rehabilitation but instead prompted the the youth to be more hardened people once released. John Griscom and Thomas Eddy were advocating for the juveniles to be treated differently from the adults. The two pushed for reformations in the judicial systems by urging for the creation of a new kind of rehabilitation facility meant for the young.

A substantial number of people have lost their lives due to drug use and its dependence. Most of the people who died from drug use were either alcohol or addicts. These are not the only drugs that are abused by the youth, recently, abuse of other prescription drugs has been on the rise. They are second in the category of most abused drugs, second to marijuana, cocaine, methamphetamine among other drugs. Most adults say that they started using the illegal drugs in their teenage years. It is reported that the percentages of substance abuse vary along demographic lines. The rates and popularity rises as the young individual's transition into adolescence. It is also evident that the youth are initially introduced to alcohol and tobacco before they know of marijuana.

The use of other hard substances usually come in older ages after the juveniles have been already introduced to marijuana. There is racial invariance in the detention and official case processing for the youths for substance abuse law violations. Index crime arrest rate in 2004 was 25 percent lower than it had been in 1997. Unlike other criminal activities against people, however, the juvenile detention rate for simple crimes has not declined significantly since the mid-1990s. This reduction can be attributed to the recent policy amendments that dictate the police to make arrests in learning institutions and private places that previously would have been handled informally. Notably, the arrests for substance abuse violations have not followed the trends observed for violent and other criminal activities.

The rate of arrests of juveniles who went against the drug law went up over fifty percent from 1981 to 2005 (Barga, Sharkova & Kohlenberg, 2014). black juveniles are more than twice likely to be arrested for drug abuse as the white youth. Causes of Substance Abuse among the Youth It is essential to know the causes of substance abuse to help the juveniles who addicted the illegal drugs that have more negative effects on health. As earlier explained, drug abuse has far-reaching consequences that affect even the families of the affected youth. Families with teens who are drug addict go through a lot and it not most of them have the funds or experience of how to deal with such individuals (Sharerx, 2011). However, in as much as it can be overwhelming, there have been a lot of effort to come up with solutions to the drug addiction problem and creating rehabilitation centers and illegalizing the drugs are some of the interventions made by both the federal and local governments have made to curb the issue.