Where did all the good drugs (research) go? An examination of substance use research in criminal justice and criminology journals

Despite the interdisciplinary nature of criminology and criminal justice (CCJ), adolescent substance use is seemingly viewed as outside the field’s purview. Though illegal, behaviors such as underage alcohol and marijuana use are increasingly absent from CCJ journals and conferences. This shift appears to contradict the discipline’s mission to explore the causes of delinquency, fragmenting the field by relegating substance use research to niche journals. This paper quantitatively examines the extent to which adolescent substance use research has been increasingly marginalized in leading CCJ journals over the past 15 years. Of the 4920 articles appearing in 10 leading CCJ journals over a 10-year period, only 12.2% (n = 600) were categorized as drug-related. Only 312 (6.42%) were primarily focused on alcohol and/or drug use, and even fewer used a substance use measure as a dependent variable (n = 259; 5.26%). Explanations of this phenomenon are explored, and five key justifications for substance use’s reintegration into CCJ are presented.