COVID-19 pandemic and the use of illicit substances in young people with delinquent behaviors

• Main Author: Silva, M.
• Publication Date: 2022
• Other Authors: Matos, R., Carvalho, M. J.
• Language: eng
• Source: Repositórios Científicos de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (RCAAP)
• Download full: http://hdl.handle.net/10400.14/40655
• topic: Pandemic Covid-19; Juvenile justice system; Drugs

This study is part of the JUST COVID-19 (UCP) and YO&JUST (CICS-NOVA) projects, aiming to understand the impact of the covid-19 pandemic on the use of illicit substances by young people with delinquent behaviours. Early onset of substance use in adolescence has been associated with increased delinquency and subsequent criminality, specifically including violent crime, and being at particularly high risk of serious problems later in life (Gordon et al., 2004). As the pandemic progressed, containment measures were implemented. Social distancing to decrease interaction between individuals (Duarte, 2020), the closure of schools and other places that provided crowding of the population (Schmidt, 2020), as well as the general isolation caused in young people various stressors such as fear of being infected, distress, loneliness, anxiety and depression (Scalia et al., 2020). These variables may have caused changes in the contexts and patterns of illicit substance use. To understand such changes several professionals who work with young people with deviant behaviours were interviewed. In this poster, we present the study and its main results.