Discuss Delbert Elliott's research on the relationship between drug use / delinquency and developmental problems. Explain your view on this concept

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

• According to the Elliott research, both drug use and delinquency seem to reflect developmental problems; they are both part of a disturbed lifestyle. This research reveals some important associations between substance abuse and delinquency:
• Alcohol abuse seems to be a cause of marijuana and other drug abuse, because most drug users started with alcohol, and youths who abstain from alcohol almost never take drugs.
• Marijuana use is a cause of multiple-drug use: About 95 percent of youths who use more serious drugs started on pot; only 5 percent of serious drug users never smoked pot.
• Youths who commit felonies started off with minor delinquent acts. Few delinquents (1 percent) report committing only felonies.
• The Elliott research has been supported by other studies also indicating that delinquency and substance abuse are part of a general pattern of deviance or problem behavior syndrome, such as association with an antisocial peer group and educational failure.
• There seems to be a pattern in which troubled youths start by committing petty crimes and drinking alcohol and proceed to harder drugs and more serious crimes.
• Kids who drink at an early age later go on to engage in violent acts in their adolescence; violent adolescents increase their alcohol abuse as they mature.
• Both their drug abuse and the delinquency are part of an urban underclass lifestyle involving limited education, few job skills, unstable families, few social skills, and patterns of law violations.
• Student views will vary.

Ref: p. 420-421