Demon Drink?Alcohol and offending

December 2013

"[Alcohol] just changes me, makes me different, like, [more] physical and I get angry quickly and stuff."

(Male, 14)

Project Goals

Understand levels of alcohol use and related risks amongst young offenders in London

Raise awareness of risky underage drinking by high risk groups, and contribute to alcohol practices in the youth justice system

Give young offenders a voice on alcohol issues

Context

YOTs 34% of total referrals

2005-06

2006-07

2007-08

2008-09

2009-10

2010-11

2011-12

2012-13

-

2,000

4,000

6,000

8,000

10,000

12,000

14,000

16,000

Numbers in treatment for cannabis and alcohol

Cannabis Alcohol

Source: Public Health England

Context

Source: Public Health England

Crimin

al just

ice

Self, fa

mily

& fr

iends

Health

Educatio

n

Social c

are

Substance

misu

se

Housing

Oth

er0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

Referral source to young people’s substance misuse services

%

FINDINGS

Quantitative Sample

• 412 in sample from YOT databases

• Average age = 16

• 90% male

Black

Whit

e

Mixe

dAsia

n

Chines

e/O

ther

05

1015202530354045

Qualitative Sample

• 19 semi-structured interviews across 3 boroughs

• 16 male and 3 female • Ages ranged from 14-18, with

an average age of 16

Alcohol would be illegal if it was made now. It kills thousands. Weed should be legal, alcohol kills many people.

(Male, 16)

Substance Use (Quantitative Data)

• 11% viewed substance use as positive/essential

• substance use was involved in offending behaviour for 20%

• For 11% there was evidence that family members or carers used alcohol heavily

Substance Use (Qualitative Data)

• 18 out of 19 had smoked cannabis, and 17 out of 19 had drunk alcohol.

• Only 5 interviewees said they still drank alcohol, and only one said they drank regularly.

• The average onset age of drinking was 14 years.

Alcohol Use

44%31%

25% Not known to have usedEver used (not recent)Recent use

“I got kicked out in the middle of year 8, I wasn’t really in main school [after that]...and that’s when I started going down the wrong path...”

(Male, 16)

Alcohol linked to mental health & disaffection with education

• Of 113 clients who had had contact with/been referred to mental health services, 71% had used alcohol in the past

• Of the 43 participants known to have been excluded from school, 65% had used alcohol and 28% of those excluded were recent users

‘...if it gets aggro I can get angry. It’s crazy, I’ve done lots of things when I was drunk and got away with it, not got caught by the police."

(Male, 16)

Alcohol & Violence• No clear link between alcohol

use and violent offending • Have/use(d) alcohol + substance

use linked to offending 33% committed violence against the person (as opposed to 19% of those who did not see a link)

• However, looking at all violent offences, link disappears tied specially to offences centred around 'fighting'

"I think its 90%, that they're [young people] gonna get in trouble with the police [if they've been drinking]. Coz they're drunk, they're not gonna know what they're doing, the drink is controlling them, so they're gonna end up getting into trouble, getting hurt."

(Male, 15)

PROJECT RECOMMENDATIONS

Training

• Train case workers in Identification and Brief Advice (IBA)

Youth justice case workers need to be confident in addressing risky alcohol use

Make NICE

• Existing guidance from the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) around alcohol and substance misuse should be followed

Don’t Look At ‘Alcohol’ On Its Own

• Schools (universal services ) AND youth offending services (targeted) need to know:

Alcohol use is more likely amongst ‘at risk’ young people

London Is Different

• So these findings can’t be considered representative nationally.

Further research is needed in other areas to better understand alcohol use amongst offender cohorts.

Thanks

• Mentor and Alcohol Concern would like to thank

– Middlesex University for academic governance of this project. In particular thanks goes to Dr Lucy Neville and to Juliana Tromposky for her contribution,

– The London boroughs who worked with us to give us access to their data,

– The young people who agreed to be interviewed for the project, and

– Trust for London for funding the project.

Download the full report from http://bit.ly/1fj6fp2