The Path from Childhood Behavioural Disorders to Felony Offending: Investigating the Role of Adolescent Drinking, Peer Marginalization, and School Failure

Background

Although a pathway from childhood behavioural disorders to criminal offending is well-established, the aetiological processes remain poorly understood. Also, it is not clear if attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is predictive of crime in the absence of comorbid disruptive behaviour disorder (DBD).

Hypothesis

We examined two research questions: (1) Does ADHD have a unique effect on the risk of criminal offending, independently of DBD? (2) Is the effect of childhood behavioural disorders on criminal offending direct or mediated by adolescent processes related to school experience, substance misuse, and peers?

Method

Structural equation modelling, with latent variables, was applied to longitudinally collected data on 4,644 males from the 1986 Northern Finland Birth Cohort Study.

Results

Both ADHD and DBD separately predicted felony conviction risk. Most of these effects were mediated by adolescent alcohol use and low academic performance. The effect of DBD was stronger and included a direct pathway to criminal offending.

Conclusion

Findings were more consistent with the life course mediation hypothesis of pathways into crime, in that the effects of each disorder category were mediated by heavy drinking and educational failure. Preventing these adolescent risk outcomes may be an effective approach to closing pathways to criminal behaviour among behaviourally disordered children. However, as there was some evidence of a direct pathway from DBD, effective treatments targeting this disorder are also expected to reduce criminal offending.

Below:  Structural Equation Model (Standardised Path Estimates are Reported)

Full article at:   http://goo.gl/SoVWGH

  

By:  Jukka Savolainen, W. Alex Mason, Jonathan D. Bolen, Mary B. Chmelka, Tuula Hurtig, Hanna Ebeling, Tanja Nordström, and Anja Taanila

Jukka Savolainen, School of Criminology and CriminalJustice, University of Nebraska at Omaha, 321 Nebraska Hall, Lincoln, NE 68588-0561, USA, Phone 402-472-3677, FAX 402-472-6758

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Heavy Testosterone Use among Bodybuilders: An Uncommon Cohort of Illicit Substance Users

OBJECTIVE:

To identify and characterize patterns of use among a contemporary cohort of current anabolic-androgenic steroid (AAS) users.

PATIENTS AND METHODS:

An anonymous, self-administered, 49-item questionnaire was posted on message boards of Internet websites popular among AAS users and administered via SurveyMonkey from February 1, 2015, to June 1, 2015. Thirty-seven questions were analyzed for this study.

RESULTS:

A total of 231 male respondents met the inclusion criteria. 

• Most were white, were older than 25 years, were employed with above average income, and had received a formal education beyond high school. 
• 93% began using AAS after the age of 18 years, and 
• 81% reported using 400 mg or more of testosterone per week. 

Factors associated with longer duration of use (>5 years) included 

• higher incomes (≥$75,000, P=.003), 
• increased testosterone dosages (>600 mg per week, P=.007), 
• older age (≥35 years, P<.001), 
• being married (P<.001), 
• and being self-employed (P<.001). 

The Internet was the most common source of testosterone (53%). 

• 93% used at least one additional performance-enhancing drug. 
• 77% had routine laboratory tests performed, and 
• 38% reported laboratory abnormalities at some point. 

Nearly all experienced subjective adverse effects while using and not using testosterone. 

• 53% reported use of other illegal substances, 
• most commonly (90%) beginning before AAS initiation. 
• 10% had a criminal conviction, 
• 91% of which preceded AAS use. 
• 50% were felonies.

CONCLUSION:

The population of AAS users is disparate from that of other drugs of abuse. Laboratory test abnormalities and adverse effects are common and should be taken into account when counseling patients who may be using AASs.

Purchase full article at:   http://goo.gl/VoxsoH

By:  Westerman ME1, Charchenko CM1, Ziegelmann MJ1, Bailey GC1, Nippoldt TB2, Trost L3.

• 1Department of Urology, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN.
• 2Division of Endocrinology, Metabolism and Nutrition, Department of Medicine, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN.
• 3Department of Urology, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN. Electronic address: Trost.Landon@mayo.edu (http://www.mayoclinic.org/biographies/trost-landon-w-m-d/bio-20055549)
• Mayo Clin Proc. 2016 Jan 5. pii: S0025-6196(15)00890-3. doi: 10.1016/j.mayocp.2015.10.027. 

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Health Priorities among Women Recently Released from Jail

Below:  Priorities among Women Recently Released from Jail

Five out of 28 women listed health as their top post-release priority. However, many women had competing priorities after release, including housing, employment, and children. We found that women described several reasons why health was not a priority; however, participants reported regular use of the healthcare system upon release from jail, indicating that health was important to them to some degree.

Our findings may inform intervention efforts that connect women to healthcare resources and increase health-promoting behavior during the transition from jail to community.

Via http://ht.ly/JWEg8 HT @KUMedicine