Citation

Wiblishauser M, Jordan TR, Price JH, Dake JA, Jenkins M. J. Juv. Justice 2015; 4(2): 13-26.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2015, In Public Domain (U.S. Department of Justice OJJDP), Publisher CSR)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

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Abstract

Substance use among adolescents in the United States is a major public health problem and priority. According to the 2013 Monitoring the Future study, approximately 28% of American adolescents reported having used illicit substances during the year and approximately 36% of high school seniors stated they had used an illicit substance within their lifetimes (Johnston, O'Malley, Miech, Bachman, & Schulenberg, 2014). As an indicator of the importance of this issue in the United States, the nation's health objectives, i.e., Healthy People 2020, included 21 specific objectives related to substance abuse, many of them targeted directly at adolescents (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 2011). Incarcerated adolescents are especially at risk for problems related to substance use. When compared to nonincarcerated youth, incarcerated adolescents reported high levels of substance use (Wilson, Rojas, Haapanen, Duxbury, & Steiner, 2001; Ford, Hartman, Hawke, & Chapman, 2008). Juvenile drug use may also be predictive of criminality continuing into adulthood. One study found that adults who had committed 90 or more offenses during the courses of their lifetimes were more likely to have used drugs as juveniles (DeLisi, Angton, Behnken, & Kusow, 2013).


The purpose of this study was to identify and assess the substance use services provided to juvenile offenders in juvenile justice-affiliated facilities. The study's random sample of 540 directors was broken into three groups according to the gender of the clients they served: 218 coed facilities, 217 male-only facilities, and 105 female-only facilities. The majority of juvenile justice-affiliated facilities (79.4%) reported providing substance use services to juvenile offenders. More male-only facilities (88.8%) reported providing substance use services than either female-only (79.7%) or coed facilities (66.7%). The most cited perceived benefit to providing services was improving overall school performance (85.4%). The most cited perceived barrier to providing services was lack of qualified staff (42.9%). The results indicate that significant differences in substance use services exist according to gender of the client served in juvenile justice-affiliated facilities. These differences need to be reconciled to ensure that all juvenile offenders are provided with equitable and effective treatments.


Michael Wiblishauser, Department of Health Science, Lock Haven University; Timothy R. Jordan, Department of Health and Recreation Professions, University of Toledo; James H. Price, Department of Health and Recreation Professions, University of Toledo; Joseph A. Dake, Department of Health and Recreation Professions, University of Toledo; Morris Jenkins, College of Health and Human Services, Southeast Missouri State University. Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Michael Wiblishauser, Lock Haven University, Department of Health Science, Willis Health Professions, Office #142, Lock Haven, PA. E-mail: mjw939@lhup.edu

Keywords: substance use, treatment programs, juvenile delinquency, juvenile justice, juvenile detention

Language: en