Criminal behavior with history of addictive substance of male offenders at juvenile training school.

Abstract

Introduction : Problem of addictive Substance and Criminality are damaging to the economy and the stability of the country. The use addictive substance assembles criminals in order to buy and sell drugs; some become wholesalers.

Objectives : The purpose of this study was to find out the profile of youth dependant on addictive substance and their criminal behaviors as well as the relationship between criminal behaviors and records on addictive substance of the juvenile in the Juvenile Training School.

Setting : The juvenile in the Juvenile Training School.

Research design : A cross-sectional descriptive study.

Participants : Males juvenile being 14 year of age or above, trained in the Juvenile Vocational Training Center

Methods : A random-sample group was of 126 subjects was recruited into the study. The tools used in this research were questionnaires surveying on general information, addictive substance information, criminal information, and the Mini International Neuropsychiatric Interview (M.I.N.I). Statistics used in this research were descriptive statistics where the data were analyzed by calculation of percentage, frequency, mean, standard deviation, and inference statistics by examining correlation by applying Chi-square test, Fisher's exact test and T-test.

Results : Result of study showed that 91.3% of the male juvenile used to use addictive substance. The average age of their first exposure was 14. The most used addictive substance was met-amphetamine. The highest frequency of use was daily. The highest amount of money used for buying addictive substance was 20,000 baht per day, and the average amount was 1,500 baht per day. Person(s) most frequently accompanied them taking to take drugs were a group of friends and girlfriend. The average age of first offence was 15. Most juvenile used to commit an offence for at least 1 time and some more than 5 times. Type of offence committed for the first time and the latest time was mostly related to drug offence such as taking drug or drug dealing followed by offences related to property such as larceny, robbery and gang robbery. The reason for committing the first and the latest offences was to get money and in need of drug. It was found that factors in relation to not having career of the juvenile, separation or divorce of the parents, drug use by the father and the group of friends, dealing or delivery of drug, conduct disorder and antisocial personality disorder correlated to drug use by the juvenile with statistical significance. It was further found that drug use by the juvenile also correlated to the number of time of being arrested, cause of committing an offence, charge for being under arrest such as committing an offence related to addictive substance and property.

Conclusion : It was drug use by the juvenile that causes another crime. As the amount of addictive substance used trend to increase, the crime increases. Also, amount of addictive substance most frequently affects the frequency of being arrested.