Alcohol, Drug Use, and Delinquent and Criminal Behaviors among Male Adolescents and Young Adults

This paper examines the relationship between reported delinquent and criminal behavior and drug use patterns among male adolescents and young men in the United States. In an effort to refine prior analyses on the subject, pattern of alcohol use is viewed as a variable worth considering in conjunction with heroin and/or cocaine use patterns. The analysis indicates that the drug patterns relate differentially to the selected indicators of delinquent and criminal behavior and that generalizations about these relationships depend on the nature of the criterion behavior and on ethnic group differences. It is concluded that the clearly excessive criminality of hard drug users does not make hard drug use a powerful predictor of criminality in the population as a whole, since a relative few of all criminal acts are committed by hard drug users and that pattern of alcohol use is a salient variable.