Lecture 9 - Substance use and delinquency
Alcohol use and delinquency
Do the Dutch drink?
Underage drinking
13-year-olds: 11% has been involved in monthly drinking (2016) and 8.8% in 2019
15-year-olds: about 70% has engaged in binge drinking in the last month
Are they delinquent?
Self-reported criminal behaviour (at least one delinquent act in the last 12 months)
12-17 years old: 38% (2010), 35% (2015), 36.6% (2020)
Most prevalent delinquent acts
- Violence acts (21%)
- Threatening (19%)
- Vandalism (13%)
The prevalence of delinquent acts committed by minors is dropping, since 2010 it has
dropped from 31.2% to about 14% → Fewer registered minor suspects
Similarities and differences
Shared similarities
1. Alcohol use and delinquency are interrelated, there is a correlation and they often co-
occur → the more offences someone is involved in, the higher the chance they are
involved in risky drinking. Most studies find no predictive effect of alcohol use on
delinquency, whereas delinquency mostly is a significant predictor of alcohol use
2. Both alcohol use and delinquency peak in adolescence
3. Both alcohol use and delinquency peaks are important predictors of other risk
behaviours, like drug use or risky sexual behaviour
4. Alcohol use and delinquency share underlying mechanisms (such as self-control,
social context or family)
5. Both alcohol use and delinquency have shown a decline in recent years and now
show stabilisation
Differences
1. Development: alcohol use increases up to at least 25 years, while delinquency
declines from 18 years onwards
2. Across gender: Alcohol use is about equal across genders, but most people engaged
in delinquency are male
3. Representation of ethnic minorities: for alcohol use, ethnic minority groups are less
represented, but for delinquency they are highly represented
4. Behaviour-specific parenting: age restriction for alcohol, no age restriction for
delinquency, which is why delinquency is more influenced by general parenting than
alcohol-specific rules etc. Based on previous studies and the different parenting
styles, the authoritative parenting style is the ideal parenting style to stop kids from
alcohol use and delinquency, the neglectful parenting style is the opposite and the
least ideal.
,Rules about alcohol influences monthly alcohol use. Monthly alcohol use is correlated to
smoking and cannabis use. → Risky drinking (i.e. binge-drinking) and cannabis use is
predictive of delinquency
Parents and adolescent drinking
Parents often used to provide the first alcoholic drink for their adolescent childs, this is not
true for delinquency.
Prevention of alcohol use in students (PAS)
Parent intervention
Aim: strict parenting (rules and attitudes about alcohol)
1. Presentation at parents meeting (3 times)
a. The first parents meeting during the new school year
b. Brief meeting of about 15 minutes
2. Building consensus between parents
3. Passing out an information leaflet
Student intervention
Aim: increase self-control and healthy attitudes about alcohol
1. Four digital interactive lessons (e-learning) in class
a. Interactive assignments
b. Individual and group lessons
c. Attractive lay-out
2. Hard-copy booster in year two
With this intervention, they targeted early adolescents (12-16 years)
Because 16 was still the legal drinking age and they enter secondary school at age 12
With these interventions, both adolescents and parents should be targeted
- Mediators of alcohol use for the adolescents are self-control and attitude about
alcohol, these mediators are targeted by the interventions
- Mediators for the parents are teaching self-control, setting rules about alcohol and
the attitude about alcohol, also targeted by the interventions
What about delinquency?
- 40-50% of delinquent offenders has a
substance addiction
- Substance addiction is often a contra-
indication of delinquency treatment →
offenders cannot be treated for their
delinquent behaviours as long as they are
addicted. “Rehabs” don’t want to treat
delinquents
A moderator: combined intervention is more
effective in adolescents with externalising behaviour
, Conclusion of research done:
- Combined Prevention of Alcohol use in Students intervention is effective
- It postpones the onset of (heavy) weekly drinking up to age 16
- It curbs the development of externalising behaviours up to age 15
→ Particularly in adolescents with externalising behaviour at age 12
Two hypotheses on how this happens:
1. Underlying mechanisms (increase in self-control and alcohol-specific rules) result in
lower rates of externalising behaviour
2. Delayed alcohol initiation leads to less externalising behaviours
What happened in 2006/2007, because of the steep decline of alcohol use and delinquency:
1. Social media hypothesis
- Social media as another platform to meet the needs of adolescents
(recognition by peers, entertainment)
- Shift from offline to online delinquency
2. Changing social cultural attitude hypothesis
- Changing attitudes of youth and parents towards risk behaviour
- More protective factors (monitoring/sollicitation) less risk factors (exposure to
risky peers)
Alcohol use and delinquency
Do the Dutch drink?
Underage drinking
13-year-olds: 11% has been involved in monthly drinking (2016) and 8.8% in 2019
15-year-olds: about 70% has engaged in binge drinking in the last month
Are they delinquent?
Self-reported criminal behaviour (at least one delinquent act in the last 12 months)
12-17 years old: 38% (2010), 35% (2015), 36.6% (2020)
Most prevalent delinquent acts
- Violence acts (21%)
- Threatening (19%)
- Vandalism (13%)
The prevalence of delinquent acts committed by minors is dropping, since 2010 it has
dropped from 31.2% to about 14% → Fewer registered minor suspects
Similarities and differences
Shared similarities
1. Alcohol use and delinquency are interrelated, there is a correlation and they often co-
occur → the more offences someone is involved in, the higher the chance they are
involved in risky drinking. Most studies find no predictive effect of alcohol use on
delinquency, whereas delinquency mostly is a significant predictor of alcohol use
2. Both alcohol use and delinquency peak in adolescence
3. Both alcohol use and delinquency peaks are important predictors of other risk
behaviours, like drug use or risky sexual behaviour
4. Alcohol use and delinquency share underlying mechanisms (such as self-control,
social context or family)
5. Both alcohol use and delinquency have shown a decline in recent years and now
show stabilisation
Differences
1. Development: alcohol use increases up to at least 25 years, while delinquency
declines from 18 years onwards
2. Across gender: Alcohol use is about equal across genders, but most people engaged
in delinquency are male
3. Representation of ethnic minorities: for alcohol use, ethnic minority groups are less
represented, but for delinquency they are highly represented
4. Behaviour-specific parenting: age restriction for alcohol, no age restriction for
delinquency, which is why delinquency is more influenced by general parenting than
alcohol-specific rules etc. Based on previous studies and the different parenting
styles, the authoritative parenting style is the ideal parenting style to stop kids from
alcohol use and delinquency, the neglectful parenting style is the opposite and the
least ideal.
,Rules about alcohol influences monthly alcohol use. Monthly alcohol use is correlated to
smoking and cannabis use. → Risky drinking (i.e. binge-drinking) and cannabis use is
predictive of delinquency
Parents and adolescent drinking
Parents often used to provide the first alcoholic drink for their adolescent childs, this is not
true for delinquency.
Prevention of alcohol use in students (PAS)
Parent intervention
Aim: strict parenting (rules and attitudes about alcohol)
1. Presentation at parents meeting (3 times)
a. The first parents meeting during the new school year
b. Brief meeting of about 15 minutes
2. Building consensus between parents
3. Passing out an information leaflet
Student intervention
Aim: increase self-control and healthy attitudes about alcohol
1. Four digital interactive lessons (e-learning) in class
a. Interactive assignments
b. Individual and group lessons
c. Attractive lay-out
2. Hard-copy booster in year two
With this intervention, they targeted early adolescents (12-16 years)
Because 16 was still the legal drinking age and they enter secondary school at age 12
With these interventions, both adolescents and parents should be targeted
- Mediators of alcohol use for the adolescents are self-control and attitude about
alcohol, these mediators are targeted by the interventions
- Mediators for the parents are teaching self-control, setting rules about alcohol and
the attitude about alcohol, also targeted by the interventions
What about delinquency?
- 40-50% of delinquent offenders has a
substance addiction
- Substance addiction is often a contra-
indication of delinquency treatment →
offenders cannot be treated for their
delinquent behaviours as long as they are
addicted. “Rehabs” don’t want to treat
delinquents
A moderator: combined intervention is more
effective in adolescents with externalising behaviour
, Conclusion of research done:
- Combined Prevention of Alcohol use in Students intervention is effective
- It postpones the onset of (heavy) weekly drinking up to age 16
- It curbs the development of externalising behaviours up to age 15
→ Particularly in adolescents with externalising behaviour at age 12
Two hypotheses on how this happens:
1. Underlying mechanisms (increase in self-control and alcohol-specific rules) result in
lower rates of externalising behaviour
2. Delayed alcohol initiation leads to less externalising behaviours
What happened in 2006/2007, because of the steep decline of alcohol use and delinquency:
1. Social media hypothesis
- Social media as another platform to meet the needs of adolescents
(recognition by peers, entertainment)
- Shift from offline to online delinquency
2. Changing social cultural attitude hypothesis
- Changing attitudes of youth and parents towards risk behaviour
- More protective factors (monitoring/sollicitation) less risk factors (exposure to
risky peers)
