Research on Crime Pathways for Adolescents with an Experience in Substance Use

This study on the causes of juvenile delinquency is based on the fact that there are significant differences between the research results conducted in Korea and those carried out in overseas countries. The research results published in Korea mainly focus on the experience of substance use as a major cause of juvenile delinquency. In particular, drinking and smoking are emphasized as the starting point of criminal behavior. However, the mechanism between substance use and criminal behavior has not been clearly explained. Therefore, the studies identifying the pathways of substance use and criminal behavior can be regarded as important. Particularly, this study focuses on social capital as an important variable explaining the mechanism of the pathways to crime. Recently, new bases of debates about correlations between social capital and substance use have been proposed by some studies conducted in overseas countries. Those studies suggest that people with low social capital do not experience substance use but those who experience substance use have low social capital instead. It suggests that identifying correlations between substance use and social capital in Korea clearly is necessary. On the other hand, most studies conducted in Korea argue that low social capital causes the experience of substance use. However, it should be noted that most of the studies used cross-sectional data analysis. This study adopted longitudinal data analysis because most recent study results released in overseas countries derived from longitudinal data analysis. Explaining the pathways of criminal behavior by social capital affected by substance use is the significance of this study which attempts to establish hypotheses opposing to the hypotheses generally suggested in Korea. Based on the research objectives, this study establishes hypotheses on two research subjects. First, does juvenile experience of substance use affect social capital formation? Second, can juvenile substance use experience and the pathway to criminal behavior be explained through social capital? These research subjects are based on the assumption that juvenile substance use basically affects the reduction of social capital and explains their criminal behavior. As results of the analysis, adolescents who experienced substance use had a significant influence on their relationship with peers, number of delinquent friends, and criminal behavior. Unlike the findings suggested in the studies conducted in Korea, it is confirmed that the experience of substance use can explain criminal behavior by its influence on the reduction of social capital. The results suggest that the experience of substance use increases the number of delinquent friends who become eventually a critical pathway to the increase of juvenile criminal behavior. Moreover, it was found that the increase in the number of delinquent friends degrades the relationships with friends and affects criminal behavior.