Alcohol-Related Violent Crime in a City Centre - Article Example

NAME : XXXXXXXXXX TUTOR : XXXXXXXXXX TITLE : ALCOHOL RELATED VIOLENT CRIME IN THE CITY CENTER COURSE : XXXXXXXXXX INSTITUTION : XXXXXXXXXX @2009 Alcohol related violent crime in a city centre Introduction Alcohol is characteristically considered to be one of the major sources of violence and disorder in different parts of the world. The level of media coverage clearly leads into this conclusion. There are also various statistics which, in most cases, purport to indicate that 60% to 80% of the violent crimes are alcohol related. Theoretical perspectives about the relationship that exists between alcohol and belligerence, disorder together with crime have been assessed extensively. And the notion is that violent and disorderly behavior is always associated with the consumption of alcohol mainly because of the cultural traditions, social expectations as well as personality predispositions. Both scientists and non-scientists have recognized a two way connection between the utilization of alcohol and violent or belligerent behavior. Violence refers to the behavior that deliberately inflicts or tries to inflict physical harm. It falls into a larger category of aggression. The three types of alcohol available in the market are ethanol, isopropanol and methanol. They have similar structure and they contain a hydroxyl group.Isopropanol and methanol is toxic when taken in very small amounts. Isopropanol causes visual problems while methanol is toxic because it’s broken down to formic acid which is lethal to humans (Brick 2003). In this context we will be considering ethanol therefore the term alcohol in this paper will be referring to ethanol. Two billion people in the world today use alcohol. “Alcohol causes 1.8 million deaths (3.2% of the overall figure) and a loss of 58.3 million people which represents four percent of the total number of Disability-Adjusted Life Years (DALY). Inadvertent injuries alone relate to about 1/3 of the 1.8 million deaths while neuro-psychiatric conditions account for 40% of the 58.3 million DALYs. The load is not equally spread among various nations. Utilization of alcohol is the main risk factor for illness burden in low mortality developing nations and the third major risk factor in nations that are developed. In U.S. alone, alcohol consumption was responsible for over 55,000 deaths among young people aged 15-19 years in 1999 (Rchm and Eschmann 2002), (World Health Organization 2004). From this, it is evident that alcohol consumption should be put in check and this paper will mainly be dealing with alcohol related violence. Alcohol consumption in moderate amounts is not detrimental to humans but it becomes dangerous when abused. Restrained utilization of alcohol is considered healthy by some researchers. Alcohol abuse implies taking it in very large volumes such that the person taking it loses control or becomes dependent on it. Taking alcohol in large amounts is referred to as binge drinking which may result to adverse effects on the liver, destroy various tissues in the body, impair hormonal regulation; it increases susceptibility of certain cancers among other things. It may also result into intoxication which may cause memory lapses or may give an individual courage to do derogatory things. Intoxication causes cognitive impairment and psychomotor impairment. Alcohol has a damaging effect on the human skeleton. Alcohol makes the skeleton weak and thus instigates fractures, osteoporosis, minute changes in bones, accelerates bone disease among other defects. Dependence on alcohol is the scenario in which an individual cannot function normally unless the person takes alcohol; in this case the person is an alcoholic. Alcoholism is a major setback I in the day to day life of an alcoholic. It makes an individual negligent; the individual may manifest symptoms such as shakes and mood swings. It is so impairing that the affected person has to seek rehabilitation before the person can resume their normal life. Rehabilitation will consist of detoxication of the individual followed by continuous therapy which may require services of a sponsor who helps to guide the alcoholic. Alcohol related violence may thus occur when an individual is intoxicated and does not understand what he or she is doing. An intoxicated man who has sexual desires may end up raping a woman because he feels as though it is his right to have intercourse at that very moment. An intoxicated man may also have some impaired vision when he sees the woman in question as the most beautiful being. However, this is not likely to be the situation once the alcohol wears off. Intoxication can also result in individuals lashing out at each for very insignificant differences which would have been overlooked under normal circumstances. For instance when an intoxicated man is bumped into in a night club he is more likely to cause a fight which will disrupt the peaceful operations of a night club in the form of broken beer bottles and disruption of property. Intoxication may also result in self inflicted injuries such as falls that may even be fatal. Other alcohol related crimes may be perpetrated by alcohol dependent individuals who want money to satisfy their alcohol desire. The persons may end up stealing from other people to generate the necessary cash for a quick fix. This behavior will culminate in the individual having a bad reputation and thus not being trusted by the people around him. This crime may result in the person losing their job or being incarcerated. Alcohol dependent people are known to be negligent and dysfunctional. Their negligence may result to unintentional injuries to them as well as individuals around them. For instance driving under the influence of alcohol may result to accidents that would have been simply evaded if the individuals were sober. Alcoholic parents tend to ignore their children who may injure themselves due to lack of parental supervision. The children may also not perform well at school and since they are not happy at home they may lash out at their fellow students and engage in petty crimes. Domestic violence may also be ascribed to the abuse. It is a prevalent occurrence that alcoholic fathers end up treating their wives as punching bags. They lash out at their wives when they are queried about their awful habits or if they have feeling that their wives are incompetent for example if their food is not ready as soon as they get home. Other alcoholics take out their frustrations by hitting their children and thus messing them up for life. Domestic violence may also manifest by the alcoholic verbally abusing his family members and thus scarring them emotionally. When family members are living in duress and do not exercise their right to freedom then this becomes the worst kind of crime against humankind. Most alcohol related crimes occur in night clubs which are mainly located in the city centre, on highways leading to residential areas and in homes. The perpetrators are mainly young adults. This is because this age bracket (18-26) enjoys social gatherings in city centers at night. The nature of their crime is often drunken and disorderly related crimes. These crimes usually involve fights that erupt in clubs due to small misunderstandings. The fights may however, culminate to the distraction of property in the licensed premise and injuries inflicted by the fighting parties. This results to a major setback for the entrepreneurs whose business is forced to be stopped while the fight is contained. It also halts usual business operation since the premise has to be renovated. The crimes may involve indecent exposure. Young adults who hit the clubs in play games such as dares or plain simple pranks. A dare may involve an individual being asked to strip stark naked and run around the city centre. Pranks may be perpetrated against law enforcing officers. Drunken driving is a prevalent alcohol related crime. A young adult under the influence of alcohol may want to drive home. Due to his/her intoxication the person may cause an accident by overlooking bumps or running a red light. The idea of car pooling when getting back home may cause more distraction than necessary. A group of drunken people in the same car may result in a lot of games while driving and the driver may easily be distracted thus causing an accident. For instance, the driver may ram into a pole or hit a pedestrian. Since the ramifications of alcohol related violent crimes are not pleasant, action needs to be taken to contain it. The first method would be the reduction of binge drinking. Binge drinking is the utilization of a lot of alcohol within a given period of time. In the United States it is quantified by taking more than 5 beers in a row for men and taking more than 4 beers for women. The causes of binge drinking are peer pressure, curiosity, as means to contain stress among other things. It is deemed as self destructive since it has many repercussions. The following are just but a few examples; impaired judgment, deterioration of physical health, weakening of mental ability, alcoholism among other things. Impaired judgment is when a drunken person takes unnecessary risks which in his sober mind will take. For instance the person may take part in unsafe sex. Students who engage in binge drinking when young have been known to end up being obese by 24 years of age. Students who engage in heavy alcohol do not grasp concepts as fast as other students do. Alcoholism is when a binge drinker becomes totally rely on alcohol and cannot function without it. Therefore reduction of binge drinking by setting time limits for the functioning of bars and also restricting the age at which a person may buy alcohol is imperative. Under age drinking is when young people as stipulated by a country’s regulation take alcohol. It is considered an abuse of alcohol because it is illegal. Under age children tend to try alcohol out of curiosity, so that they conform to the society’s rules, To appear relevant among their peers among other reasons. It should be dejected by applying stringent rules. For instance bar owners should not be allowed to sell alcohol to under age citizens, young people should be scared off alcohol; the manufacturers should be advised to clearly indicate that too much alcohol consumption is detrimental to health. Bibliography Brick, J 2003, Medical results of alcohol Consumption, Haworth Press Inc., United Kingdom. World Health Organisation, 2004, World Status Account on Alcohol, Macmillan Publishers, New York. Read More