2. "[Alcohol] just changes
me, makes me
different, like, [more] physical
and I get angry quickly and
stuff."
(Male, 14)
3. 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
4. Context
Numbers in treatment for cannabis and
alcohol
16,000
14,000
12,000
10,000
8,000
6,000
4,000
2,000
-
Cannabis
Alcohol
Source: Public Health England
5. Context
Referral source to young people’s substance
misuse services
40
35
30
25
% 20
15
10
5
0
Source: Public Health England
7. Quantitative Sample
• 412 in
sample
from YOT
databases
• Average
age = 16
• 90% male
45
40
35
30
25
20
15
10
5
0
8. 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
9. Alcohol would be illegal if it
was made now. It kills
thousands. Weed should be
legal, alcohol kills many
people.
(Male, 16)
10. 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
11. 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.
13. “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)
14. 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
15. ‘...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)
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'
17. "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)
19. Training
• Train case workers in
Identification and Brief Advice
(IBA)
Youth justice case workers need
to be confident in addressing
risky alcohol use
20. Make NICE
• Existing guidance from the
National Institute for Health
and Care Excellence (NICE)
around alcohol and substance
misuse should be followed
21. 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
22. 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.
23. 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
Editor's Notes
These rates of alcohol use were surprising, suggesting significantly lower levels of alcohol experience than other national study of offender cohorts. Hammersley suggests that nine in 10 young offenders have ever drunk alcohol and it is estimated half of young offenders got drunk at least once a week. However, there is little or no recent comparable data available for young offenders living in London, with its consistently low-drinking culture.Surveys of school-age pupils aged 11-15 years in London suggest that 31% have ever drunk alcohol and only 7% have drunk in the last week - far below national rates of 74% and 25% respectively . A directly comparable with the offender data set aged 11-17 years old - drinking experience increases with age - but, in line with wider study, the findings appear to show higher alcohol risks for young offenders in London than non-offending peers . However, we need to be cautious with these conclusions due to the lack of reliable comparable data.
It is not possible to draw conclusions about the causality of alcohol in poor mental health or negative educational experiences based on these findings. Alcohol was not identified as a factor in disaffection and seems unlikely to have played a significant part in contributing to disengagement with schooling. However, experience of exclusions, truancy and attending a PRU may influence the likelihood of poor outcomes, including alcohol misuse. Alcohol may not represent the most significant vulnerability in the lives of many young people aged 11-17 years but it does appear as a thread between other risks factors and vulnerabilities. It is highly likely that what the data reflects is that for many young people in the youth justice system, alcohol represents one of a cluster of risks that contribute to poor life outcomes. Both mental health services and schools, PRUs in particular, need to be aware of the increased risk of alcohol use by the young people they work with. Practitioners should be aware that alcohol may be overlooked when multiple risks are present in a young person’s life. Dependence, fortunately, is rare amongst under-18s but early drunkenness and risky drinking patterns shape later relationships with alcohol and increase the problem behaviours. Early identification by universal services such as schools and in targeted support services such as PRUs, mental health services and YOSs is vital.
Fighting is strongly associated with alcohol use. Hazardous drinking is a risk factor both for being victimised and perpetrating youth violence and early drunkenness is linked to experience of fights, injuries and other problem behaviours. In England and Wales 18-24 year old males that report feeling very drunk at least monthly are more than twice as likely to have been involved in a fight in the previous year. The British Medical Association (BMA) estimates that in the UK, 78% of assaults are committed under the influence of alcohol. Whilst the evidence supporting the link between alcohol use and fights in young people and young adults appears strong, the evidence linking alcohol and violent recorded offences in under-18s appears less so. The YJB do not have statistics on the prevalence of alcohol on point of arrest. Limited existing research has tended to study higher risk imprisoned young people with research typically taking place in Youth Offending Institutes (YOIs), rather than amongst wider youth offender populations, many of who are completing community sentences. Certainly, young people interviewed for the study strongly associate excessive alcohol with losing control and being in fights, both in general assumptions and personal experiences. All interviewees that had drunk felt that alcohol had historically had a negative effect on their behaviour characteristically making them short-tempered and impulsive. A smaller proportion associated alcohol use with getting into ‘trouble’ - an association apparently not supported by the data. Six of the 19 young people interviewed stated that alcohol has played a part in them getting into ‘trouble’, although the police were not necessarily specified. It needs to be considered, given the strength of the link between alcohol and fights amongst boys and young men in particular, that alcohol-related violence may be under-recorded by criminal justice agencies. Alcohol-related violence committed by under-18s is likely to take place in the same environments in which they drink, often out of sight of the public or authorities. Violence is likely to take the form of a fight