Alcohol and Crime Relationship

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Abstract
For many years, alcohol has been considered to be one of the primary factors
motivating crimes in many societies of the world. Undeniably, alcohol is one of
factors causing severe and sometimes fatal health complications, social and
economic problems if a country. Alcohol is currently responsible for many personal
destructions and deaths per year, in most societies of the world. There are many
pervious research and scholarly work that has been done showing the relationship
between alcohol use and crime. Research indeed shows that alcohol increases the
chances of criminal behaviors, and there exists a consistent relationship between
the two. However, many researchers still disagree on the extent of criminality
because of alcohol intake. A significant number of studies by these researchers
that have been carried out in the recent years have been focused on crime as a
result of drinking. In an attempt to understand more of this phenomenon and help
find new ways of reducing the frequency of alcohol intake and consequences of
crime, this paper addresses on the relationship between alcohol and crime. The
present study is based on the research conducted at British city to analyze how
alcohol intake can trigger criminal activities.
Introduction
The issue of alcohol and crime in the society is a wide problem that needs to be
expounded more. It has been evident that alcohol may lead to crimes and violence in
many ways. Some of these offences committed are defined in the relation to
alcohol, depending on the degree of consumption allowed or manner. Some of the
crimes are increased by the effect alcohol has on the individual or the victims.
Thus, there is an urgent need for strategies to be made to reduce the consumption
of alcohol thus directly reducing crimes, by altering the behavior of the
individuals or the society. A lot of cases have been brought up in research that
evidently shows that alcohol influences a person’s mindset, int o committing
heinous crimes in the society, both knowingly and unknowingly. There are instances
where individuals commit crimes after consuming alcohol, -by its influence, where
individuals take alcohol so as to commit a crime, and when an individual is
attacked or robbed when under the influence of alcohol. These and many other more
instances of alcohol consumptions in a way contribute to the rising crime rate in
the society. In this quest to study the relationship between alcohol and crime,
the research questions and objectives to be met in the research are; how the
alcohol affect the lives of particular individuals, how it changes the behavior of
the individual, the least age allowed for an individual to consume alcohol, the
role of parents and guardians in restraining their children from consuming and
finally, which measures to be taken so as to reduce the alcohol-related crimes.
Key constructs and themes
The research by Rosemary D.F. Bromley 2002 show that alcohol use among
individuals affect croime more than othger factors combned like cultural factor and
bcgharacter traits. The research further shows that the use of alcohol inyterferes
with one’s character and behaviour. By tampering on the emotions of the
individuals, leading to hate and violence among individuals. This hate can be
tranferred to a cxharacter trait where people commit crimes in the society. There
are three common categories that alcohol and crime can be realated. One is the
casual relationship, contributory relationship and finnaly co-existance. The
causal Relationship are the offences that are alcohol-inspired, induces and are
defined by alcohol. One may not be aware that he is committing a crime.
Contributory relationship is where a person takes alcohol with a purpose of
committing a crime or harming others. And the last category is co-existence where
the individual engages in two activities that are unrelated.
Literature Review
Some of the offenses that are related to alcohol include alcohol-specific
crimes and licensing crimes. There are some individuals who use alcohol as an
excuse for committing certain crimes in the society. Also, there is an observed
behavioral change of alcohol consumers, particularly among the young individuals.
This is because the focus much of their time there instead of engaging in other
constructive activities. (Eberle 1982). There are categories of crimes related
to alcohol from minor to major crimes. First offence in the category is Licensing
law offences, such as selling to under- age individuals, another one is Alcohol
specific offences like drinking and driving, and public distractions, offences
committed to satisfy alcohol such as stealing and robbing to find money to buy
alcohol and the last in category is using alcohol as an excuse.
Theoretical framework and Hypotheses
Clearly, alcohol is the number one factor in the cases of crimes, though its extent
in causing the crimes is unclear. Basing from the researches that have been
carried out in decades, the evidence that alcohol is a factor in crime is not yet
substantial, as the evidences provided are not strong enough. From the evidence
produced, we can deduce that crime can be caused by anybody, whether intoxicated or
sober. Also, sexual advances cases like raping and child molestations can be
committed by a sober person and an intoxicated person, only that a sober person
would have more influence than the other. this makes the evidence produced even
much weak. There are measures that could alleviate the situations in this paper,
and they form the most important part of the paper. Since the use of alcohol can
change the behavior of an individual, the noted problems are solvable using various
techniques and strategies.
The list of strategies that can be used to solve the problem of alcohol use is;
education, preventing sale of alcohol to young individuals below the required age,
and enforcing licenses to all alcohol outlets and other parties. The importance of
education in reducing alcohol intake is that education enlightens the individuals
in that they would know the benefits and the disadvantages of consuming alcohol.
This strategy can be initiated by the media campaigns, as many individuals would
get the message and get a lesson form it and thus reduce the cases of alcohol-
related crimes.
Another strategy that can be useful in reducing alcohol intake is enforcing the
age brackets strictly. Young people below the age standard of any particular
country should restrain from taking alcohol. Also, the adults have a role in
restraining the young individuals from engaging in drinking behavior, as it can be
the contributing factor for crimes in the society. The supermarkets, pubs and clubs
that still avail alcohol to the under-age kids should also reduce doing this.
In order to find a solution to the looming problem, the authorities have a role to
know the individual selling and marketing the alcohol to the underage. The main
people behind the business of selling of alcohol to the underage are the unlicensed
dealers. The authorities have to know the people conducting these businesses and
arrest the since the underage individuals are the ones committing these criminal
offences regularly. In addition, the parents or the guardians have a big role to
ensure that the underage kids do not get exposed to alcohol until they reach the
required legal age, so as they cannot change their behavior. Lastly, licensing
should be done in all the environments and making sure that the proper rules and
regulations are followed.
Research Methodology
There is a large variety of explanatory techniques that were applied in the
relationship between alcohol and crime behavior. It was the interest of the policy
makers to know the exposure to alcohol effect the whole rates of crime in the
population and also wanting to address the need for policing in places where
alcohol is distributed, sold and consumed. The prediction and estimation techniques
were selected so that they can provide the necessary guidelines for alcohol and
crime prevention. The research entailed both quantitative approach and qualitative
approach of research, data collection methods that would guide the future research
of alcohol and crime.
The study also used various data collection techniques to find the relevant
data and information on the relationship between alcohol and crime rates. Some of
the data collection methods used include; surveys, Interviews, Experiments and
Observation methods.
Surveys
This data collection approach was conducted in various police stations and prisons.
From the data collected, there were a number of criminals charged with alcohol
related crimes. this method mainly used questionnaires that were administered to
the police and the criminals in quest to find out the relationship between alcohol
and crime. the result from these surveys presented an interesting fact on the
nature of crimes and the states the victims were in.
Interviews
For the police and prison centers that we conducted our research, we interviewed
some of the prisoners so that they can provide the crucial information that
happened when they committed the crimes they were charged for. The essentials aim
of the interview was to give a clear picture of what influenced their actions to
commit the crime.
Quantitative approaches were used to conduct the research as it uses deductive
logic. The research first started with the hypothesis and then data was collected
to determine the empirical evidences. From the data collected, there was a high
relationship between alcohol and crime rates. Most of the victims we collected data
on revealed how alcohol effect made them commit the crimes they were accused of.
Also, there are evidences that suggested that most of alcohol sold were not dully
licensed. The required legal age for an individual to consume alcohol was also
among the problems that were brought forward. The research to be carried out would
take approximately four months, as we study the relationship between alcohol and
crime in the society.
Contributions
The research on the relationship between alcohol intake and crime rates in a
particular country offer significant contributions to the industry such that the
results can be used in future deterrence of the events. The policy makers would
use the results from the study to make various recommendations to appropriate
institutions so as they can reduce alcohol intake among the individuals and thereby
reducing crime in the society. These are important contributions to the industry it
will benefit managers in decision making, whereby they would use them to make
various recommendations and guidelines to be followed.
Another big contribution of the research s to the authorities. They would be able
to know the patterns of alcohol intake among individuals and thereby deter any
crime that may happen because of intoxication. All the distributors, the seller and
the consumers of alcohol would be subjected to strict rules as well as licensing so
that the rate of alcohol taking to reduce significantly. this would be beneficial
to the whole society as it would give individuals perspective to do other positive
activities in the society, thereby reducing the rate of crime.
Limitations
Some limitations of the study are noted. First, the sample we used included
mostly individuals that have been arrested after they have committed the offence.
This excludes the individuals out there who have committed crimes earlier without
being charged or arrested. Therefore, the findings may not be generalized to all
the individuals of a particular country. However, it can be beneficial for the
individuals who have been understudied in the past, and may be informative on for
the policies and programs made to address the problem of alcohol and crime in the
society.
Another limitation is the reliance in self-report data, that maybe affected by
social desirability. However, use of interviews reduced this concern to some point.
Lastly, even though we controlled for a common risks factors that are
representative of the individuals across all the domain, these factors are not
exhaustive.
Conclusion
The findings from the study indicate that there is s strong relationship
between alcohol and crime rates, which have important implications for preventative
interventions. The interventions are always best when it is started early in
adolescence. Looking for alcohol and violence behaviors early in the life would be
beneficial in the fight against alcohol abuse and crime in the society.

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