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JOURNAL OF ADOLESCENT RESEARCH / November 2001 Farabee et al. / TREATMENT AND ADOLESCENT CRIME

The Effect of Drug Treatment on Criminal Behavior Among Adolescents in DATOS-A

David Farabee Haikang Shen Yih-Ing Hser Christine E. Grella M. Douglas Anglin

University of California, Los Angeles

This study examined criminal activity among 1,167 adolescents who participated in a community-based substance abuse treatment study (Drug Abuse Treatment Outcome Studies for Adolescents) (DATOS-A). The primary goals of this study were to assess the effect of substance abuse treatment on adolescent crime and to identify the patient characteristics that were most closely associated with reductions in crime during the posttreatment period. Results confirmed that among adolescents who had engaged in criminal activity during the 12 months prior to entering DATOS-A treatment, reductions in alcohol or marijuana use were independently associated with significant reductions in the likelihood of committing crimes during the 12-month follow-up period. The present study also provides further support for emphasizing dynamic rather than static patient characteristics to predict the likelihood of continued drug-related offending among substance-abusing adolescents.

Among the general U.S. population, the prevalence of past-month illicit drug use is highest among adolescents and young adults 16 to 20 years of age

This work was supported by the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) Grant U01-DA10378 as part of a Cooperative Agreement on the Drug Abuse Treatment Outcome Studies (DATOS). The project includes a Coordinating DATOS Research Center (Robert L. Hubbard, principal investigator at National Development and Research Institutes, Inc.) and two Collaborating Research Centers (M. Douglas Anglin, principal investigator at University of California, Los Angeles, and D. Dwayne Simpson, principal investigator at Texas Christian University) to conduct treatment evaluation studies in...