This study expanded upon an earlier study, which examined
the associations between heavy drinking and persistence of serious violent
offending through emerging adulthood (approximate age 25), by examining
associations between alcohol, marijuana, and other drug use and disorders and
persistence of serious violent offending through young adulthood (approximate
age 36).
We used official records and self-reported longitudinal data
from Black and White men from early adolescence through young adulthood (n = 391). Men were divided into four violence
groups: non-violent, desisters, persisters, and very late-onsetters.
Multinomial logistic regression analyses controlling for race and incarceration
were used to compare these groups in terms of substance use in young adulthood
and changes in use from emerging to young adulthood.
Most previous serious violent offenders did not re-offend in
young adulthood. Whereas alcohol use did not differ across groups, persisters
and desisters, compared to non-violent men, were more likely to use hard drugs,
deal drugs, have a lifetime substance use disorder diagnosis and show larger
decreases in alcohol and marijuana frequency from emerging to young adulthood.
None of these measures differed between persisters and desisters except that
persisters reported larger decreases in alcohol and marijuana use frequency.
The findings demonstrated reductions in serious violent
offending during young adulthood and suggested that after adolescence, illicit
drug use, compared to alcohol use, may play a more important role in initiation
and maintenance of serious violent offending. Future research that examines the
interrelations of drug use, drug culture, and violence is warranted.
Full article at: http://goo.gl/0Pw2S4
- 1Center of Alcohol Studies, Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey.
- 2Department of Psychiatry, University of Pittsburgh Medical Center.
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