Drug use and young offenders, is there a connection?
INTERVIEW / Fabiana Cantero and Fernando Veneziale Drug abuse and juvenile offending are often thrown in the same bag without much clarity as to what connects one issue to the other. A program in Argentina tries to untie precisely that knot, the Programa de Assistencia e Pesquisa sobre Dependencia, that belongs to Argentina’s National Office for Childhood, Adolescence and Family. Its recent study describes, in its title, the scope of their research: “Estudio sobre perfiles sociales y patrones de consumo de sustancias psicoactivas en adolescentes residentes en dispositivos de régimen cerrado” or A study of the social profile and standards of psychoactive substance abuse among adolescent detainees in full detention. According to psychologist Fabiana Cantero and sociologist Fernando Veneziale (photo) authors, there is no simple cause and effect connection for the use of psychoactive substances and criminal activity among young offenders. This is not to say that no cases were found of crim
