Pattern and the cause circle of offence related to addictive substance use in juvenile observation and protection centers, Thailand

This cross-sectional study examines the pattern and cause circle of offence occurrences related to addictive substance use among 1002 juvenile participants (quantitative) and 52 participants (qualitative) in six juvenile observation and protection centers. The results indicated that males were more likely to use cannabis, kratom, Yaba, ecstasy, ketamine, and ice during their lifetime (p<0.05). The causes of offence occurrences in female juveniles mainly derived from family, whereas in male juveniles, besides their family, they (themselves) and their friends were the causes. Juveniles who had entered the justice system after such experiences will have high risk of drug relapse and re-offence. Finding the pattern and the cause circle of offence occurrences may be beneficial to delivering interventions to resolve the gap of the cause circle before returning them to the community. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.4038/ijptsud.v1i1.5910 International Journal of Prevention and Treatment of Substance Use Disorder Vol.1(1) 2013: 38-5