Violent offenses and substance use among Brazilian adolescents

This paper investigates the relationship between substance use and delinquency in relation to violent offenses (V) and non-violent offenses (NV). A sample of 778 school adolescent was selected - it included only students who had committed at least one crime. The Questionario de Comportamentos Juvenis, which is an auto report questionnaire on offenses and substance use, was then used to record information from selected adolescents. The groups V and NV were compared by sex for variables related to alcohol, cannabis and other drugs use. The t test for independet groups was used to compare groups. The effect size was calculated based on the Cohen's d. In most cases, the average of substance use of V groups was larger than the average of NV groups, though with small effect sizes. The alcohol use among adolescent girls didn't show differences between groups. The results support previous studies' results. Longitudinal studies are needed to study the development of behavior, as well as studies with groups of juvenile offenders.