Youth with fetal alcohol spectrum disorder are 19 times more likely to get into trouble with the law than other people, a district health board says.
And among those in foster care, the prevalence of the disorder, caused by drinking alcohol during pregnancy, is 10 times the rate in the general population, the Northland DHB says, following a forum on the links between the disorder and the justice system.
Judge Catherine Crawford, of West Australia, told the forum, "Children adversely affected by neuro-disability, resulting from alcohol exposure during pregnancy, are at an increased risk of committing crime or being a victim of crime. Such outcomes are doomed to be repeated when there is systematic failure to identify and appropriately accommodate their disability into adulthood."
She said that when she spent a day in the Whangarei Youth Court, six of the 19 young people before the court had been diagnosed with fetal alcohol spectrum disorder (FASD).
The health board said it was estimated that of the nearly 60,000 live births a year in New Zealand, 600 to 3000 are children with FSAD.
