ABSTRACT
There is a high prevalence of substance use among children and young people in the UK. While for the majority this is largely experimental, a significant minority will develop substance misuse problems. Substance misuse problems are correlated with young people who might be described as vulnerable or, put another way, are exposed to a number of other risk factors associated with offending behaviour and social exclusion. For this reason, it is hard to isolate the independent impact of substance misuse on offending behaviour.
