Use of drugs and criminal behaviour among female adolescent prostitutes in Lagos metropolis, Nigeria

This paper demonstrates that a sizeable number of adolescent girls are often involved in the use of drugs in their various sex industries. There is much controversy as to whether criminal activities among the sex workers are influenced by drugs use. Cross-sectional survey and in-depth interviews were adopted to generate data from respondents. Findings show that sex workers are frequently engaged in drug use and criminality but their engagement in criminal activities is not significantly influenced by the use of drugs. The study recommends an urgent need to design and implement effective research studies, policies, prevention and intervention programmes to deal with the intricacies associated with drug use and criminality among adolescent girls in Nigeria.