{"id":2690,"date":"2025-11-10T13:00:50","date_gmt":"2025-11-10T02:00:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.dalgarnoinstitute.org.au\/wp_site\/link-between-foetal-alcohol-spectrum-disorder-and-youth-crime-sparks-calls-for-change\/"},"modified":"2025-11-10T13:00:50","modified_gmt":"2025-11-10T02:00:50","slug":"link-between-foetal-alcohol-spectrum-disorder-and-youth-crime-sparks-calls-for-change","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.dalgarnoinstitute.org.au\/wp_site\/link-between-foetal-alcohol-spectrum-disorder-and-youth-crime-sparks-calls-for-change\/","title":{"rendered":"Link between Foetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder and youth crime sparks calls for change"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Anne Russell thought it was safe to drink alcohol while pregnant with her son, Seth, but her actions led to him being born with Foetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD) \u2014 a condition she believes pushed him into the criminal justice system.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Key points:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li data-mce-word-list=\"1\">Experts are calling for all children in Australia&#8217;s criminal justice system to be assessed for FASD<\/li>\n<li data-mce-word-list=\"1\">It is believed up to 40 per cent of inmates in Australian prisons may have the disability, but most are undiagnosed<\/li>\n<li data-mce-word-list=\"1\">A federal inquiry into FASD support, prevention and diagnosis is due to release its findings next month<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Ms Russell does not know what happened to her son in prison, but she says he has never been the same since.<\/p>\n<p>Seth*, now 37, does not talk about the experience \u2014 in fact, he doesn&#8217;t talk much at all. &#8220;He stays in his caravan 24\/7,&#8221; Ms Russell said. &#8220;He doesn&#8217;t come out, he doesn&#8217;t socialise. &#8220;That was basically the end of him being able to live a relatively normal life.<\/p>\n<p>The fear that many more children have the condition but are undiagnosed has sparked calls for sweeping changes to Australia&#8217;s criminal justice system.<\/p>\n<p>Ms Russell said it was vital that children were assessed for FASD when they came into contact with youth justice and child protection systems.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Early diagnosis, looking at target groups is so important,&#8221; she said.<\/p>\n<p>University of Queensland research fellow Natasha Reid said diagnosing patients with FASD could prevent them from reoffending.<\/p>\n<p><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.abc.net.au\/news\/2020-11-23\/foetal-alcohol-spectrum-disorder-in-youth-justice-system\/12885632\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" class=\"button\">For Complete Story<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Anne Russell thought it was safe to drink alcohol while pregnant with her son, Seth, but her actions led to him being born with Foetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD) \u2014 a condition she believes pushed him into the criminal justice system. Key points: Experts are calling for all children in Australia&#8217;s criminal justice system to [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":"","_wp_rev_ctl_limit":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2690","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-fasd"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dalgarnoinstitute.org.au\/wp_site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2690","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dalgarnoinstitute.org.au\/wp_site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dalgarnoinstitute.org.au\/wp_site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dalgarnoinstitute.org.au\/wp_site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dalgarnoinstitute.org.au\/wp_site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2690"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.dalgarnoinstitute.org.au\/wp_site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2690\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dalgarnoinstitute.org.au\/wp_site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2690"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dalgarnoinstitute.org.au\/wp_site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2690"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dalgarnoinstitute.org.au\/wp_site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2690"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}