The delinquency-drug relationship: the influence of social reputation and moral disengagement

Abstract

A large number of studies have focused on the relationship between drug use and violent delinquency in adolescence. Most of these studies underline that even if substance use and delinquency often co-occur, they may result from common causes that increase the risk for both outcomes. In particular, the delinquency-drug relationship may be mediated both by the type of drug and the incidence of other variables. In this article, social reputation and moral disengagement are studied as predictors of both drug use and violent delinquency in a 336 adolescent participants. Results confirm the hypotheses that social reputation and moral disengagement predict drug use and delinquency and that heavy drug use predicts delinquency.