Adolescence Predictors for Drug Crime Offending: A Follow-up Study of Former Adolescent Psychiatric Inpatients
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ORIGINAL PAPER
Adolescence Predictors for Drug Crime Offending: A Follow‑up Study of Former Adolescent Psychiatric Inpatients Mikaela Kontu1 · Helinä Hakko2 · Kaisa Riala2 · Pirkko Riipinen1,2 Received: 28 April 2020 / Accepted: 2 September 2020 © The Author(s) 2020
Abstract Our aim was to examine adolescent predictors (family- and school-related factors, substance use, and psychiatric disorders) for drug crime offending. The initial study population consisted of 508 former adolescent psychiatric inpatients aged between 13 and 17 years. Of them, 60 (12%) had committed a drug crime by young adulthood and they were matched with 120 (24%) non-criminal controls by sex, age and family type. During adolescent hospitalization, study participants were interviewed using valid semi-structured research instruments. Criminal records were obtained from the Finnish Legal Register Centre up to young adulthood. A distant relationship with a father, lying, and thieving, moderate/high nicotine dependence and weekly use of stimulants were shown to be the most prominent predictors for drug crime offending. Our findings encourage the use of modern child- and family-centered approaches in preventing youth involvement in illegal drug use and drug crimes. Keywords Drug criminality · Substance use · Mental health · Family factors · Young adulthood
Introduction Childhood adversity is widely associated with an increased risk of psychiatric disorders in adulthood (Björkenstam et al. 2016), as well as risks of criminal behavior (Baglivio and Epps 2016; Baglivio et al. 2015). It is known that the greater the amount of family-related adversities, the higher the risk is for mental dysfunction (Felitti et al. 2019; Hughes et al. 2017), and criminal behavior in children and adolescents (Baglivio and Epps 2016; Baglivio et al. 2015). The pathway from childhood behavioral disorders to criminal offending is widely acknowledged in the research literature (Bussing et al. 2010; Fergusson et al. 2005; Pratt et al. 2002). Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), oppositional defiant disorder (ODD), and conduct disorder (CD) are reported to be potential predictors for criminality (Erskine et al. 2016). The effects of these disorders are often mediated by alcohol use and low academic * Mikaela Kontu [email protected] 1
Department of Psychiatry, Research Unit of Clinical Neuroscience, University of Oulu, P.O.Box 5000, 90014 Oulu, Finland
Department of Psychiatry, Oulu University Hospital, Oulu, Finland
2
performance during adolescence (Savolainen et al. 2015). CD symptoms are a risk for illicit drug use, both directly and indirectly, through positive attitudes toward illicit drug use (Kolp et al. 2017). Individuals with disruptive behavior disorders (ODD and CD) and ADHD, schizophrenia or nonschizophrenic psychosis (Fazel et al. 2009), and antisocial personality disorder (Black et al. 2010) are shown to be more at risk of engaging in criminal behavior. Most of this excess risk for criminality appears to be mediated by comorb
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