Primary Purpose for Committing a Crime and Past-30 Day Opioid Misuse: A Statewide Sample of Justice-Involved Children

• Author: Dylan J. Shaw,Micah E. Johnson
• Date: 01 January 2022
• Published date: 01 January 2022
• DOI: 10.1177/00220426211037608
• Subject Matter: Articles

Article

Journal of Drug Issues

2022, Vol. 52(1) 97–113

© The Author(s) 2021

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DOI: 10.1177/00220426211037608

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Primary Purpose for

Committing a Crime and

Past-30 Day Opioid Misuse: A

Statewide Sample of

Justice-Involved Children

Dylan J. Shaw

1

and Micah E. Johnson

2

Abstract

The prevalence of opioid misuse (OM) among justice-involved children (JIC) is signif‌icantly higher

than children in the general population, yet little research has examined the predictors of OM

among JIC. Goldstein’s“economic compulsive model”hypothesizes that JIC who commit crimes

for material gain will have a higher likelihood of meeting past-30 day (P30D) OM criteria. The data

in this study were cross-sectional and represented 79,960 Florida JIC. To test the hypothesis,

logistic regression analyses were utilized. Over 2000 JIC (2.67%) met P30D OM criteria and JIC

who committed crimes for material gain were 2.55 times as likely to meet P30D OM criteria.

Findings indicate that children may be incarcerated due to an inability to afford their addiction,

contributing to the criminalization of mental health. JIC could benef‌it from the increased utili-

zation of drug courts and the implementation of a cascade of care model.

Keywords

opioid misuse, crime, juvenile justice, justice-involved children, motive, drug abuse

Introduction

Justice-Involved Children and Opioid Misuse

With ongoing concerns for opioid overdose among criminal justice populations (Green et al.,

2018), there is an increased need for research on the predictors of opioid misuse (OM) initiation

among justice-involved children (JIC). Recent research has underscored the elevated risks for

opioid-related overdose and deaths among correctional populations (Binswanger, Blatchford,

1

College of Medicine, University of Central Florida, Orlando, FL, USA

2

Department of Mental Health Law and Policy, College of Behavioral and Community Sciences,University of South Florida,

Tampa, FL, USA

Corresponding Author:

Dylan J. Shaw, College of Medicine, University of Central Florida, 6850 Lake Nona Blvd, Orlando, FL 32827, USA.

Email: dylanshaw1997@gmail.com

Mueller, & Stern, 2013;Farrell & Marsden, 2008;Green et al., 2018;Leach & Oliver, 2011;

Ranapurwala et al., 2018). Programs targeting correctional populations have been shown to

signif‌icantly reduce opioid-related deaths statewide among adults (Green et al., 2018). A child is

def‌ined as an individual under the age of 18 years (NIH, 2019). An earlier study of approximately

1800 JIC in detention facilities found that approximately half had one or more substance use

disorders (McClelland, Elkington, Teplin, & Abram, 2004). Research that addresses the predictors

of OM initiation among JIC may also have similar effects in reducing OM and opioid-related

deaths statewide among adolescents and adults. One method to identify JIC who are at risk ofOM

is to examine their primary purpose for the activities that led to their involvement in the justice

system, and whether certain motives are associated with higher risk. Limited studies have focused

on criminal motives and OM, but some evidence suggests that crime is a predictor of OM and vice

versa (Coid, Carvell, Kittler, Healey, & Henderson, 2000;Goldstein, 1985;Hammersley, Forsyth,

Morrison, & Davies, 1989). Therefore, this study aimed to examine the effect of the primary

purpose for committing a crime on past-30 day (P30D) OM.

There are multiple theories that examine the effect of crime and drug use, but the seminal work

of Goldstein (1985) has the most support in the literature. The three theories introduced by

Goldstein (1985) on the association between crime and drug use are the psychopharmacological

violence model, the economic compulsive model, and the systemic violence model. Literature on

the subject tends to indicate that the economic compulsive model is a better indicator of OM (Coid

et al., 2000;Hammersley et al., 1989;Mumola & Karberg, 2007). The economic compulsive

model notes that people are not motivated by impulse to commit crimes, but rather their mo-

tivation is to obtain money in order to obtain more drugs (Goldstein, 1985).

Opioids

Between 2005 and 2010, Sheridan et al. (2016) reported that there were 4186 calls to poison

control centers for adolescent OM alone. OM is def‌ined as the non-medical use of prescription

opioids or use of illicit opioids, such as heroin (SAMHSA, 2018). Given the rise in opioid-related

incidents going unreported, coupled with an inf‌lux of calls to poison control centers, it is im-

perative adolescents are included in research addressing the opioid epidemic. Studies have found

that 12% of adolescents reported using opioids non-medically, and of those, 21% used opioids for

purposes other than pain relief (Boyd, McCabe, Cranford, & Young, 2006). It has also been

reported adolescents visiting the emergency department for opioid use has increased from 16.5%

to 23.8% from 2001 to 2010 (Mazer-Amirshahi, Mullins, Rasooly, van den Anker, & Pines, 2014).

In more recent studies, the national average for OM was 3.7% among the general population and

2.3% among adolescents aged 12 to 17 in 2019 (SAMHSA, 2020). Although the rate of adolescent

OM has begun to decrease in recent years (Johnston, 2019;SAMHSA, 2020), more recently,

heroin, fentanyl, and other illicit opioids have become more available (Forsyth, Biggar, Chen, &

Burstein, 2017;Garbutt, Kulka, Dodd, Sterkel, & Plax, 2018;O’Donnell, Gladden, & Seth, 2017).

The misuse of these substances can lead to severe consequences including addiction, incarcer-

ation, and early death.

Primary Purpose for Committing a Crime and Drug Use

Multiple studies have found that substance misuse increases criminal behavior, but there is debate

regarding the exact temporal sequence (Coid et al., 2000;Goldstein, 1985;Hammersley et al.,

1989;Mumola & Karberg, 2007). Many conceptual models look to explain the relationship

between crime and drug use, including economic, psychopharmacological, and systemic models

(Coid et al., 2000;Goldstein, 1985;Hammersley et al., 1989;Mumola & Karberg, 2007;Powell,

98 Journal of Drug Issues 52(1)