JUVENILE DELINQUENCY AND DRUGS - Research Paper Example

Research statement Is there an association between drugs and juvenile delinquency? Introduction Criminal behavior and delinquency among young people as they transit from childhood to adulthood is rising and is currently a public challenge in most countries in the world. Experts opine that such a problem has soared because of collapsing social relations that lay a basic foundation for smooth transition. Factors contributing to this challenge are extended maturity gap, restructuring of the labor market and limited opportunities for turning into an independent adult.

Other factors include rapid growth of population, unavailability of support and housing services, unemployment, overcrowding, family disintegration, poverty, ineffective educational systems, child abuse, decline in local authorities and underemployment (World Youth Report, 2003). Due to these and several other factors, more and more young people are getting involved in illegal activities, criminal offenses and drug abuse. Juvenile delinquency and drug abuse are strongly interlinked. . Methodology In order to retrieve useful articles for research in this topic, the electronic database used was “Google Scholar”.

The words “juvenile delinquency” and “drugs” were typed in the search brackets. For more wider search, “criminal behavior” and “drugs” also were typed in another search. Several articles were displayed in the search result. After going through the abstracts, 3 articles were selected for the purpose of research review. Based on these, the following review was prepared. The articles retrieved are provided under the reference section. Literature review Substance abuse in young people can lead to several problems like anti-social attitudes, juvenile delinquency and health problems.

The problems not only affect the young individual, but also the community, family and the society of the individual (World Youth Report, 2003). There is enough evidence to suggest that earlier the drug use is initiated, more likely is the individual to develop drug related problems in life. According to the Monitoring Future Study of 2008, "19.6% of eighth graders, 34.1% of tenth graders, and 47.4% of twelfth graders use any illicit drug within their lifetimes." Thus, the soaring rise of drug abuse among youngsters has contributed to increased anti-social attitudes, criminal behavior and delinquency in this population.

According to the Uniform Crime Reporting Program of FBI, in 2007, 109,444 individuals under 18 years of age were arrested by various law enforcement agencies. In the year 2004, 1.9 percent of drug arrests made were under 19 years of age. According to the Arrestee Drug Abuse Monitoring