JUVENILE DRUG TRAFFICKERS

美国暴力犯罪的激增助长了 发展医疗保健与刑事司法的关系 菲尔兹。医疗和司法之间的接口是一个领域 职业尤其突出的是与销售有关的暴力 非法药物。青少年毒贩被发现是 尤其是因为犯下并成为 暴力犯罪。此外，据报道，这些年轻人也在 药物滥用的风险更大。然而，我们最近发现， 弗吉尼亚州因贩卖毒品而入狱的年轻人往往较少 暴力，并且没有出现更高的毒品和/或 酒精依赖明显高于其他犯罪对照组。另一方面 另一方面，青年除了从事严重的犯罪模式外，还 毒品销售活动，可能已被裁定为这些其他 违法行为，因此从我们的样本中排除。我们已经确定了一个 青少年中的第二批青少年毒贩 惩教场所。这些年轻人被认为与我们的 早些时候关于暴力、犯罪程度增加的样本 和物质使用。我们最近也记录到了很高的 青少年毒贩以及其他罪犯的枪伤 青春年华。被发现与这些损伤可靠相关的一个变量是 自我报告的滥交行为增加，可能反映了 高风险行为的泛化模式。因此，它是进一步的 假设穿透伤的流行病学和病因学 (例如，枪伤或刀伤)与物质使用、毒品有关 贩卖人口和其他高危行为。因此，这一目标是 研究是比较和对比物质使用模式、水平和 犯罪、暴力和其他高风险行为，包括渗透 创伤和高危性行为在两个青少年群体中的研究 从事毒品销售活动的罪犯。这样做的结果 研究将允许更好地描述出售毒品的青少年 毒品，以及确定枪击和高危行为的前因 在犯罪青年中，有效治疗方案可以 制定并实施了。

The proliferation of violent crime in the United States has fostered the developing relationship between the health care and criminal justice fields. One area where the interface between the medical and justice professions is particularly salient is the violence associated with sale of illicit drugs. Juvenile drug sellers have been found to be particularly at risk for both perpetrating and being the victims of violent crimes. In addition, these youth are also reported to be at greater risk for substance abuse. We have recently found, however, that youth incarcerated in Virginia for drug selling offenses tended to be less violent, and did not present with a higher incidence of drug and/or alcohol dependence than other delinquent comparison groups. On the other hand, youth engaged in significant patterns of delinquency, in addition to drug selling activities, may have been adjudicated for these other offenses, and thereby excluded from our sample. We have identified a second population of juvenile drug sellers within the juvenile correctional setting. These youth are postulated to differ from our earlier sample with respect to increased levels of violence, delinquency and substance use. We have also recently documented a high rate of gunshot injuries in juvenile drug traffickers, as well as other delinquent youth. One variable found to correlate reliably with these injuries was an increase in self-reported promiscuity, possibly reflecting a generalized pattern of high risk behavior. Thus, it is further hypothesized that the epidemiology and etiology of penetrating trauma (e.g., firearm or knife injuries) are related to substance use, drug trafficking and other high risk behaviors. Therefore, the goal of this study is to compare and contrast the substance use patterns, levels of delinquency, violence and other high risk behaviors, including penetrating trauma and high risk sexual activity, in the two populations of juvenile offenders engaged in drug selling activities. The results of this research will allow for a better characterization of juveniles who sell drugs, as well as identify antecedents for gunshot and high risk behaviors in delinquent youth such that effective treatment programming may be developed and implemented.