Developmental Influences of Substance Use on Criminal Offending

This chapter investigates how substance use might increase the risk of offending with an emphasis on developmental trajectories of substance use and their influence on offending. It describes three models that explain how substance use directly influences criminal offending: the psychopharmacological model, the economic motivation model, and the socio-environmental/contextual model. The chapter then provides an overview of empirical studies examining developmental influences of substance use on criminal behavior. First, studies examining contemporaneous and lagged associations are briefly summarized. Then, studies that have examined how trajectories of alcohol and marijuana use predict later criminal offending are reviewed, along with a brief discussion of the effects of substance use on desistance and persistence of criminal offending. Last, the chapter recommends areas for future research.