 Changes
in Delinquency and Drug Use
The Impact of Arrest
Risk and Protective Factors
Victimization
Multiple Etiological Pathways to
Delinquency
For Further Information
Introduction
The Denver Youth Survey, a
longitudinal study of urban youth, is one of three coordinated projects supported by OJJDP
since 1986 through its Program of Research on the Causes and Correlates of Delinquency
(Causes and Correlates). The Denver study has been following 1,527 boys and girls from
high-risk neighborhoods in Denver who were 7, 9, 11, 13, and 15 years old in 1987. The
primary goal of the study is to identify social conditions, personal characteristics, and
developmental patterns linked to sustained involvement in delinquency and drug use. The
findings highlighted in this Fact Sheet are based on those presented in "Some Not So
Boring Findings From the Denver Youth Survey" (Huizinga et al., 1998).
Changes in Delinquency and Drug Use
The Denver study explored changes in the nature of delinquency and drug use from the
1970's to the 1990's. Researchers compared equivalent measures of self-reported
delinquency and drug use from matched samples of the National Youth Survey* in
1979 and the Denver Youth Survey in 1991.
- Overall, there was little change in the prevalence rates of delinquency, including
serious delinquency and serious violence; however, the prevalence rate of gang fights
among males doubled (from 8 percent to 16 percent).
- The level of injury from violent offenses increased substantially. The prevalence of
victims of violence in need of hospitalization or being left unconscious almost doubled
(from 33 percent to 58 percent). This increase corresponded to an increase in the use of
weapons.
- The prevalence of drug use decreased substantially: alcohol from 80 percent to 50
percent, marijuana from 41 percent to 18 percent, and other drug use from 19 percent to 4
percent.
- The relationship between drug use and delinquency has changed. A smaller percentage of
serious delinquents are using hard drugs (other than marijuana) (from 48 percent to 11
percent) and a greater percentage of hard drug users are serious offenders (from 27
percent to 48 percent).
The Impact of Arrest
Denver Youth Survey findings suggest that many high-risk youth are
arrested and have contact with the juvenile justice system. More than half (53 percent) of
the youth in the study ages 11 through 15 in 1987 were arrested over the next 5 years. The
arrest rate was high for both genders (64 percent for males and 41 percent for females).
For many youth, arrest and juvenile justice system processing did not have the desired
effect of deterring future delinquent involvement. When the delinquent behavior in the
year following arrest for first-time arrestees was compared with that of a matched
control, the majority (about 75 percent for status offense arrests and 92 percent for
serious offense arrests) of first-time arrestees displayed similar or higher levels of
delinquency.
Risk and Protective Factors
Denver Youth Survey researchers examined risk and protective factors associated with
positive adolescent development, or "successful adolescence." The study defined
successful adolescence as minimal involvement in serious delinquencies, minimal problems
resulting from drug use, age-appropriate grade in school or graduation from high school,
and good self-esteem/ self-efficacy.
- By the fifth year of the survey, when the three oldest cohorts were ages 15 through 19,
less than half (39 percent) of these youth would be considered a success by these
criteria.
- The best predictors of success were having conventional friends, having a stable family
and good parental monitoring, having positive expectations for the future, and not having
delinquent peers.
- When the number of risk factors exceeded the number of protective factors, the chance of
a successful adolescence was very small. The chance of a successful adolescence was not
high until the number of protective factors far exceeded the number of risk factors.
Victimization
In addition to problem behavior, the Denver Youth Survey examined victimization
experienced by this high-risk sample of youth.
- Over a 5-year period (1987-91), 85 to 87 percent of the youth (ages 7 through 19) were
victims of violent offenses or theft. About one-fourth of the youth were victims of
serious violent offenses.
- Two-thirds of the youth were chronic multiple victims, meaning they were victims in more
than year and also victims of multiple offenses in at least 1 year.
- Most youth were both victims and perpetrators of crime.
- The best predictors of annual prevalence and frequency of victimization were delinquent
behavior of the victim's friends; the victim's own delinquent behavior, especially
injury-inflicting offenses; being male; and frequency of alcohol use.
Multiple Etiological Pathways
to Delinquency
Among both minor and serious delinquents, researchers found substantial variation (in
terms of individual, family, and peer characteristics), meaning that each group included
youth from different backgrounds with different factors related to their delinquent
involvement. This suggests that there are multiple types of offenders with quite different
developmental sequences associated with involvement in delinquency.
For Further Information
Summaries of the findings of the companion projects in OJJDP's Program of Research on
the Causes and Correlates of Delinquency (the Pittsburgh Youth Study and the Rochester
Youth Development Study), and a report describing the methodology used in all three
studies, are being developed. Future publications about the Causes and Correlates research
will address such issues as the impact of family transitions on delinquency and protective
factors for youth in high-risk neighborhoods.
For additional information about the Denver Youth Survey, contact David Huizinga,
Ph.D., University of Colorado at Boulder, Institute of Behavioral Science, Campus Box 442,
Boulder, CO 80309.
Reference
Huizinga, D., Weilier, A.W., Menard, S., Espiritu, R., and Esbensen, F. 1998 (November).
Some not so boring findings from the Denver Youth Survey. Paper presented at the
American Society of Criminology meeting, Washington, DC.
Katharine Browning is the Program Manager for the Denver Youth Survey in OJJDP's
Research and Program Development Division. David Huizinga is the Principal Investigator of
the Denver Youth Survey.
The Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention is a component of the Office
of Justice Programs, which also includes the Bureau of Justice Assistance, the Bureau of
Justice Statistics, the National Institute of Justice, and the Office for Victims of
Crime.
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