drug & violence prevention articles

8/9/2019 Drug & Violence Prevention articles

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DDRUGRUG ANDAND VVIOLENCEIOLENCE TTRENDSRENDS & N& NEWSEWS

12 ThE ChALLENgE v7, n2

The latest surveys are confirming what many drugprevention experts already know. A larger number of

younger children are trying marijuana for the first time,adolescents are growing increasingly tolerant of drugs,and communication about drugs between parents andtheir children is lacking.

The Partnership for a Drug-Free America (PDFA)released its 1996 Partnership Attitude Tracking Studyin March. Just as the Monitoring the Future surveyshowed earlier this year, the Partnership study revealedthat drug use amongchildren is on therise. However, thePartnership study

surveyed children asyoung as 9 years old.The 1995 PDFAstudy indicated that230,000 childrenaged 9 to 12 triedmarijuana for thefirst time that year.The PDFA figures for1996 indicate thatthis number has risenby 2%, a number the

Partnership says is astatistically signifi-cant change.

The attitudes ofthese 4th, 5th, and 6th graders are also changing,according to this study. Fewer 9 to 12 year olds believethat people on drugs act stupid (71% in 1995, downto 65% in 1996). These children are less likely to saythey dont want to hang around people using drugsand they are reporting that more of their friends areusing drugs.

Sixty-seven percent of the 9- to 12-year-old childrensay parents are a reliable source of information on the

dangers of drugs. However, parents seem unwilling todiscuss drugs when their children are that young. Only29% of the parents of 4th, 5th, and 6th graders report-ed discussing drugs with their children on a regularbasis. But 42% of parents report having regular talksabout drugs with their teenage children.

A survey conducted by the Washington Post andABC News, also released in March, reveals even more

about the communi-cation gap betweenparents and their chil-dren. In this national

survey of 618 parentsof teenagers and527 youths aged 12to 17, nine out of tenparents said theyhave had a serioustalk with theirteenagers about ille-gal drugs. However,fewer than half oftheir children saidthat this conversation

occurred.And even though

both groups, parentsand teens, agree that

illegal drugs are a major problem for teenagers nation-ally, they dont see eye-to-eye when asked about thelocal situation. Two-thirds of teens said drug abuse waseither a minor problem or not a problem at all in theirlocal schools; whereas 52% of parents described thelocal school situation as a crisis or a serious problem.

S cho o l TV s h o w s ,news , mov i e s

TV c o mm e r c i a l s F r i end s

80

70

60

50

40

30

20

10

0

1993

1996

79%

72%

53%

44%

50%

42% 43% 40%

Did you learn a lot about the dangers of drugs from:

Source: 1996 Partnership Attitude Tracking Study

New studies confirm increase in marijuana use, changing attitudes

nn 20% of eighth graders and 50% ofninth graders witnessed or expe-rienced some type of violence in

school in 1995.

nn 51% of both grades report thatthere are gangs in their school.

nn 37% of these students are afraidof attacks at school.

nn 29% fear being attacked whentraveling to and from school.

Department of Educations 1995 School-based Drug Prevention Programs study

8th and 9th graders talk about violence in schools

Percent of 9-12 year olds responding


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The National Institute on DrugAbuse (NIDA) has released aresearch guide on preventing druguse. The new guide, Preventing

Drug Use Among Children and Adolescents: A Research-BasedGuide, is organized around 14 pre-vention principles.

The principles address all formsof drug abuse, including alcoholand tobacco as well as illegaldrugs. They also call for preven-tion efforts that strengthenschools anti-drug norms, teachskills for resisting drugs whenoffered, enhance protective fac-

tors, and address risk factors fordrug abuse.

Presented in a question andanswer format, the guide discussesimportant issues regarding preven-tion, including the origins and

pathways ofdrug abuse andhow these con-cepts are used

to develop pre-vention inter-vention strate-gies. The guidealso answersquestions com-monly asked by community lead-ers and prevention practitioners tohelp them design and implementprograms at the local level.

The guide provides ten exam-ples of programs that have been

effective in preventing youth druguse. These programs, which havebeen studied scientifically, are cat-egorized as universal (reaching thegeneral population), selective(targeting groups at risk or subsets

of thegeneralpopulation),or indicated (designed for peoplealready experimenting with drugsor for people who exhibit risk-

related behaviors).Copies of the prevention guide

are available free of charge fromthe National Clearinghouse forAlcohol and Drug Information(NCADI) at 1-800-729-6686.

ThE ChALLENgE v7, n2 13

The National Youth Gang Center (NYGC) reports inthis new survey that there are youth gangs in all fifty

states and most large cities. California, Texas, Illinois,Colorado, and Arizona reported the highest number ofgangs, and the center has learned that gangs are appear-ing in new localities, especially in smaller cities andrural counties.

Highlights of the surveywere released in April andshow that there are moreyouth gangs and youth gangmembers than anyone hasestimated. Furthermore, thenumbers may be even high-

er than the survey indicates,since only a random sam-pling of law enforcementagencies was queried. Over3,400 police and sheriffdepartments responded to the survey. Of the 2,000agencies reporting youth gang activity in 1995, overhalf serve areas with fewer than 25,000 residents.

The respondents reported the existence of over23,000 youth gangs with a total of almost 650,000

membersthe largest such numbers ever recorded.Law enforcement agencies in 63% of the cities and

43% of the counties reported having a special unit todeal with the youth gangs. However, 90% of the agen-cies reporting a gang problem also noted that the prob-lem has either stayed the same or has worsened, and

only 10% remarked thattheir local gang situationhas improved.

The National YouthGang Center was estab-lished in 1995 when theOffice of Juvenile Justiceand Delinquency Preven-

tion entered into a coopera-tive agreement with theInstitute for Intergovern-mental Research. NYGCsprimary task is to conduct

periodic national surveys to obtain comprehensive dataon youth gangs. Highlights of the 1995 NationalYouth Gang Survey is available free from the JuvenileJustice Clearinghouse (1-800-638-8736).

New research-

based guide

now availableto help prevent

teen drug use

First national youth gang survey released

n Most youth do not join a gang until their

teenage years.

n Prevalence rates of delinquent and violent

behavior for female gang members exceed

the rates for non-gang males.

n Gang problems in the U.S. have escalated

rapidly since the 1960s. About half of the

cities with gang problems today report theemergence of gangs only since 1985.

University of Colorado Center for the Studyand Prevention of Violence

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