A comparison of health behaviours in male adolescents with and without offending histories referred for adolescent health services in Turkey.

Our findings add indications of risky health-related behaviours to the already extensive literature on risky social behaviours in the history of young offenders. It is possible that focussing on young offenders referred to a health service, albeit one primarily directed at mental health, has exaggerated such differences, but if substantiated in larger and more diverse samples, these findings may open new avenues for early identification of young people at risk of offending and commensurate early interventions. Focus on substance use by young people seems especially important, but low family socio-economic status needs remedies too.