Risk Factors Related to Juvenile Drug Use

The aim of this study was to explore the prevalence of drugs abuse in the juvenile prison taken from pre-trial detention and Penitentiary Institution of the Albanian Country and to examine some evidence between criminal behavior and use of drugs by juvenile offenders. This research is an exploratory one, and tries to determine a link between criminal behavior and drugs. The target population consists of 71 imprisoned juveniles aged from 14 to 18 in four prisons in pretrial detention and prison institutions in Albania. For the entire population of males and females offenders interviews are used, due to their small numbers. Direct interviewing was managed by trained interviewers at a time and place convenient to the prison system and insuring the confidentiality of the offenders’ responses. Analyses reported in the present study involve simple descriptive statistics from Univariate Analysis to describe the central tendency of mean, mode, median, range, variance, max, min, standard deviation and percentages. Juvenile offenders who experiment with drugs, report episodes of offending, especially physical assault, robbery and stealing either those who were in detention for the first time or recidivists in crimes. An important finding is related to the onset of first offense among the juveniles. The mean age of first offending suggests that young males under the age of 16 years are at increased risk of criminal offending. Almost all offenders reported having used marijuana or alcohol, a percent reported crack cocaine use at the age of 11-14 years old. It is important to establish that not all drug users are criminals, and not all criminal acts are committed by drug users. However, the study highlight certain issues that need attention of country policy-makers. Juveniles are heavy users of marijuana and according to the present research, typically began their marijuana use at around the age of fourteen.