Risk Factors for Drug Use in Brazilian Schools

• In Event: Causes of Crime and Deviance from a Comparative Perspective

Abstract

Despite their frequency in the United States, crime surveys in general, and offending self-report in specific are still very rare in Brazil. One of the few was elaborated and executed by the Center for Crime and Public Safety Studies, with the intent to measure violence in schools hosted at Belo Horizonte - a large metropolitan area, home of 4 million individuals.
Drawing from these data, this paper measures the prevalence and incidence of the use of several types of drugs among an entire generation of students, and model the risk factors associated with them, including its correspondence with both offending and victimization. Controls include variables from individual, family, school and surrounding community levels.
One model was elaborated for each kind of drug, all containing the same controls, allowing the risk factors to be compared in effect size and significance.
As some conclusions, the models demonstrate how each drug have its own characteristics, in terms of the individuals making use of it, and the risk factors associated, with an even more substantial difference among legal and illegal substances. Besides, the inclusion of interactions also demonstrate the key relevance of age, as an element that substantially alter other effects in the model.

Authors

• Mateus Renno Santos, University of Maryland

• Luiza Meira Bastos, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais