Preventing future crime in adolescent drug offenders: A study of differential sanction effects on recidivism

This study examines and compares the effects on recidivism of the three most common legal responses to minor drug offences for adolescents in Norway. The essential question is whether alternative sanctions are more effective in preventing any reoffending in young people than the traditional fine. Using a longitudinal register data set, comprising all 15- to 17-year-old, first-time drug offenders in the 2000–2015 period (N = 3276), we investigate differences in duration between first legal decision and second arrest and the number of offences during follow-up. Our findings suggest that rehabilitative measures, in the form of a conditional waiver of prosecution with specified conditions, were more effective in preventing recidivism in adolescent drug offenders than a fine. Given the design of this sanction, which includes follow-up by social services and monitoring of drug use by health services, deferrals in recidivism may be caused by both positive rehabilitation experiences and negative punishment experiences.