Adolescents and young adults who are involved with the justice system are disproportionately at risk for health and social problems related to substance use. Studies show than between one-quarter and two-thirds of juvenile offenders have serious problems related to substance use, and substance use among these youth is associated with increased sexual risk-taking, violence, poor educational outcomes, poor vocational outcomes, and recidivism.[1] Consequently, it is critical to implement SBIRT and other prevention and early intervention programs to identify juvenile offenders who are facing challenges related to substance use, and providing them with substance use services to reduce their chances of future legal, health, and social problems in the future.

The resources on this page are justice-specific guides and tools that can be used in tandem with the other resources elsewhere on this website in juvenile justice settings. These tools can help facilitate SBIRT implementation in juvenile justice, provide an overview of the current state of the art in juvenile justice-based SBIRT, and provide examples of notable juvenile justice SBIRT and prevention and early intervention initiatives from across the nation.

[1] Benner, G. J., Stage, S. A., Nelson, J. R., Laederich, M., & Ralston, N. C. (2010). Predicting the cumulative recidivism of juvenile detainees. The Journal of Behavior Analysis of Offender and Victim Treatment and Prevention, 2(1), 51-62; Chassin, L. (2008). Juvenile justice and substance use. The Future of Children, 18(2), 165-183; Stoolmiller, M., & Blechman, E. A. (2005). Substance use is a robust predictor of adolescent recidivism. Criminal justice and behavior, 32(3), 302-328. Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (2016). Criminal and Juvenile Justice. http://www.samhsa.gov/criminal-juvenile-justice