By age 23, up to 41 percent of American adolescents and young adults have been arrested at least once for something other than a minor traffic violation, according to a new study published today in the journal Pediatrics.

The study gives no indication of how many of these young people committed violent crimes versus how many were rounded up for more minor infractions, such as disturbing the peace. But the study’s authors say such a high percentage of arrests may point to a host of potential health and behavioral problems that put young people at risk for criminal activity.

“An arrest usually happens in context. There are usually other things going on in a kid’s life,” said study author Robert Brame, professor of criminal justice and criminology at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte.

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• Girls as young as 15 being coerced into group sex
• Teenagers pressured into it by influence of pornography
• Nearly half of those who had group sex reported partners did not use condoms

Girls as young as 15 are taking part in group sex, with more than half being coerced into doing it, a study has revealed.

Researchers at Boston University’s School of Public Health found one in 13 teenage girls reported having a ‘multi-person sex’ (MPS) experience – often initiated by boyfriends who had been watching pornography.

The average age of the girls who had experienced MPS was just 15.6 years old – under the legal age of consent in Massachusetts, which is 16.

And nearly half of those said their sexual partners did not use condoms, raising concerns over the spread of sexually transmitted diseases.

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