Drinking in Relation to Sex Assault and Sex-Related Issues - Essay Example

Drinking Age College Drinking Age Introduction Among the people belonging to the adolescent category, the connection between addicted alcohol consumption and other trending addictions – sex and drugs, bearing unfavorable social and chemical consequences, respectively, has well been recognized. Based on the recent studies, it is observed that adolescent people’s consumption of alcohol early in life and their accessibility to alcohol at home significantly relate to increased alcoholic drinking habits affecting social behaviors in the future. These results suggest reinforcements for potential drinkers to avoid early uptake of drinking especially when the major source can be regulated. Using the research conducted in 2005 by White and Hayman via ‘Australian Secondary School Students and Drug Use Survey’, reports show that approximately 40% out of samples from the 16-17 year-old drinking Australian population confessed that parents bear chief influence in alcoholic consumption. Additionally, such findings had no substantial variance from among those who obtained influence from friends through the peer pressure of drinking on a weekly basis. Still the question remains what age must one be legally allowed to drink and to what extent should it be tolerated relative to other forms of addiction. On the Right Drinking Age (MLDA) White and Hayman (2006) examined whether parental control of drinking may be attributed to the occurrence of risky drinking for short-term harm (RSOD) and alcohol-related difficult behaviors such as physical and verbal assault from a sample of underage drinkers. Research indicates that 86% of adolescents 16-17 years of age are existing alcohol consumers whereas some 20% appear to be weekly RSOD and more than 34% get involved in at least one case of alcohol-linked problem with conduct. Moreover, it is found that mere banning of alcohol drinking for the sake of youth 18 is not practically sufficient. Fresh plans for appropriate mediation and avoidance are apparently essential according to the study of parental supplication that was figured to impact lesser rates of RSOD and alcohol-related social behavior. This rather implies the likelihood that by changing the normal supply of alcohol from the source other than the parents to the parents alone, the shift may bring about good restriction to the amount of consumption and injury among the adolescents. However, as much as parental guidance toward alcohol supply control is considered one positive approach, it is quite unexplored and must therefore undergo thorough investigation as promising alternative (Dietze, Livingston, 2010). Not until 1933, the minimum legal drinking age (MLDA) had not yet been decided to be set at 21 while prohibition to alcohol drinking was widely implemented in the United States. Due to social disturbances generally occurring in the 1960s and the Vietnam War, nevertheless, the lawful voting age became 21 by force. On this ground, 29 states reduced their MLDA to a range from 18 to 20 years within the span of five years from 1970. After a couple of years, various issues of juvenile delinquency and traffic accidents documented to have been committed by individuals below 21 so that the latter was once more designated as the MLDA by most of the states. Michigan was the first state in 1978 to have implemented the cutoff back to age 21 as the MLDA then a number of other states, similarly, exhibited compliance between 1980 and 1985. This caused the federal government to enact the age-21 as MLDA. In mid-2000s, certain movements emerged demanding for the MLDA to step down from age-21 to age-18 and proposed that the nation may be improved by such drop [2]. Despite the solid proof showing that the legal drinking age of 21 has effectively curtailed alcohol use among adolescents and reduced accidents as well, a large number of adolescents regardless of age still consume alcohol and create mischief caused by excessive or improper drinking. Independent evaluations of these writings have met resolution that whenever the drinking age underwent reduction, incidents of unmanaged behavior and traffic crashes are often encountered by the 19–20-year-olds compared to 21-year-old drinkers who obtain fewer cases of heavy alcoholism and traffic violations or accidents. Eventually, hence, age-21 was endorsed as the right MLDA with plenty of lives saved from 1975 to 2006. Studies further demonstrated that the rise with drinking age is in direct proportion with diminished alcohol-related problems like suicides, accidental injuries, poor educational accomplishment, and self-destruction. In the United States, the discourse regarding the suitable age for the MLDA has often drawn links and reference with the drinking age in other nations [40–42] where the trouble with alcohol takes place less frequently than the equivalent situation in the U.S. For some reason, rivals of the proponents to age-21 MLDA, on the contrary, argued that the lower drinking ages in Europe and other nations should be taken as a standard for the United States. The rates of high-risk drinking among adolescents are higher in most European nations than in the United States. France and Britain, for instance, are among the European countries that have expressed their anxieties lately concerning social and chemical struggles associated with high-risk use of alcohol for the adolescents. Australia and New Zealand, in the similar manner, are also confronted with such crisis and in 1999 in which New Zealand lowered the drinking age from 20 to 18 and had problems common with that of the United States on dropping the MLDA (Toomey, et al., 2009) Minimum requirement of 21 was uniform across all the 50 states including the District of Columbia yet even though the age-21 rule is connected to lessening the drinking of adolescents and alcohol-related crashes, the levels of execution had not been fair. Policy implementation has remained inadequate in view of the frequency of juvenile arrests occurring each year even if struggles are treated to proceed forward on stopping the adolescents from abusive drinking. As a consequence, policy makers have selected alternatives that inspire both adolescent people and alcohol suppliers in order to conform to the MLDA rules of age-21. One technique of enforcement of alcohol age-of-sale rules is law enforcement agencies’ use of adolescent decoys who try to purchase alcohol from retail dealers. With the help of media, such method can meaningfully lessen the number of outlets that sell alcohol to young people. Cops-in-Shops, on the other hand, may also be employed as a strategy of secret law implementation by positioning officers in alcohol retail shops to spot adolescents who attempt to buy alcoholic beverage (Montgomery, et.al., 2005). A major hindrance to effective execution is the view of law implementation officers and officials that public do not assist stern execution of the age-of-sale laws. Parents and civic leaders might consider alcohol abuses are not a big crime considering forbidden drug use and other crimes. All the 50 states are expected to observe the 21-year old drinking age set of policies comprised in methods that minimize adolescent habit of drinking through imposing high amount of taxation on alcohol, the use of control systems of alcohol supply, and strict rules on custody. It turns out that the control system and heavy taxation have obviously decreased the incidents of underage drinking (Montgomery). College students in New Zealand are known to have a strong dominance over harmful drinking and various resulting damages have been noted concerning this, from relatively minor to more grave instances like getting detained for drunkenness or being sexually attacked owing to the drinking of others [4]. The minimum legal purchase age for alcohol (MLPA) is 18 years and college students are permitted to purchase alcohol by law. Heavy drinking, nonetheless, has become common in high school and majority of students start drinking from their early adolescent years. Drinking in Relation to Sex Assault / Sex-Related Issues Several studies depict ample relation between alcoholism and hazardous sexual conduct or suffering from sexual attack. From an evaluation on college studies conducted in 2009, it was discovered that drinking was had huge deal to do with the choice to have sex and to acquire as many casual buddies as possible. Perilous sexual engagements, in effect, can be extensive on bringing disgrace, psychological and emotional suffering, sexually transmitted diseases, and unwanted pregnancies. According to Health Promotion Practice article: “Of the students who had done any drinking in the past four weeks, at least one episode of unsafe sex due to drinking was reported by 8.3% of men and 5.3% of women in that time (Connor, et.al., 2010).” Harvard Campus Alcohol Study in the year 1999 managed to present a relationship between initial drunkenness at an early age and the unintentional and insecure sex happening at the university besides the fact that excessive drinking during teenage years is well likely to lead a future life having poor health and social outcomes. Taking into account reports on sexual conduct, research on alcohol and other substance use from age-10 to age-21 suggests that early-onset binge drinkers have considerably more sexual associates than non-binge drinkers at age-21. Consumption measures with the early onset of drinking, teenage binge drinking, and harmful present drinking causative toward risky sexual behavior remain uncertain. Thus, it can be inferred that an alcohol supply of a drinker can be adjusted to a degree capable of curing damage to sexual health through mediations linked to drinking (Connor, et.al). Other Effects of Alcoholic Drinking At and Below MLDA Research efforts made on event-specific drinking are aimed to shed light upon a query whether event-specific drinking holds relevance uniquely with harmful concerns and risk actions. It is observed that students consumed noticeably more through the week of their 21st birthday and especially on their 21st birthday. Numerous students stated that they had several forms of adverse moments and risk conducts during the week, consisting of hangovers, vomiting and blackouts. Effects also reflect that 21st birthday drinking and negative concerns with risk conducts are in great association with each other in terms of distinctive drinking patterns. Those people in the stage of adolescence who were typically consuming less alcohol, however, consumed appreciable quantities in the week of their 21st birthday and seemed to be at bigger risk for experiencing negative concerns. It is vital to see that those who consume less alcohol and have lesser capacity may be mainly at threat on instances where they consume heavily than they would usually. It is established that the link amid alcohol use and behavioral hazards augmented amongst college students since their level of drunkenness goes beyond their normal level of intoxication. It is understood that lighter drinkers may be more expected than heavier drinkers to bang alcohol-related problems (Lewis, et.al., 2008). Further Studies In 2001, U.S. National Household Survey of Drug Abuse, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention 2001 Youth Risk Behavior Survey, the1992 National Longitudinal Alcohol Epidemiologic Study, and the 1999 National Survey of Drinking and Driving which was conducted for the National Highway Traffic Management collaborated with the 1999 European School Survey Project on Alcohol and Other Drugs. Alcohol-linked deadly accidents were evaluated from the U.S. Fatality Analysis Reporting System. Around 19% of adolescents age 12–20 in America drink five or more drinks on an occasion within a month. Even though European countries have lesser legal drinking ages (16–18) than in America (21), sizes are comparable in the aspect of juvenile drinking. For both the United States and the Europe, early drinkers are found to yield to greater probability of experiencing alcohol-linked difficulties or alcohol-based accidents in the course of adolescence and adulthood. In the past 20 years alcohol-linked traffic deaths amongst people younger than age-21 have been reduced to half in the U.S. but this improvement has ceased receiving sustenance since 1995 while the trouble is still at its height. Exploring the benefits of intercessions revealed that alcohol-related accidents may be addressed by increasing the legal drinking age to 21 with zero lenience laws along with particular intercessions coming from the family, school, or other socio-civic institutions. Indeed, there is crucial requirement for intensive responsiveness and action on the difficulties ensuing from juvenile drinking beyond discipline. (Hingson, et.al., 2004). References Connor, J.,Gray, A., Kypri, K.(2010). Drinking History, Current Drinking and Problematic Sexual Experiences Among University Students, AUSTRALIAN AND NEW ZEALAND JOURNAL OF PUBLIC HEALTH,,2010 vol. 34 no. 5 Dietze, P.M., Livingston, M. (2010). The Relationship Between Alcohol Supply Source and Young People’s Risky Drinking and Alcohol-Related Problem Behaviors in Victoria, Australia AUSTRALIAN AND NEW ZEALAND JOURNAL OF PUBLIC HEALTH, 2010 vol. 34 no. 4. Hingson, R.W., Assailly, J.P., Williams, A.F. (2004). Underage Drinking: Frequency, Consequences, and Interventions, Traffic Injury Prevention, 5:228–236, 2004. Taylor & Francis Inc. Lewis, M.A., Lindgren, K.P., Fossos, N., Neighbors, C. & Aaland, L.O. (2008).Examining the Relationship Between Typical Drinking Behavior and 21st Birthday Drinking Behavior Among College Students: Implications for Event-Specific prevention, Addiction, RESEARCH REPORTdoi:10.1111/j.1360-0443.2009.02518.x Montgomery, .M., Foley, L.M., Wolfson, M. (2005). Enforcing the Minimum Drinking Age: State, Local and Agency Characteristics Associated with Compliance Checks and Cops in Shops Programs, RESEARCH REPORTdoi:10.1111/j.1360-0443.2005.01328.x Toomey, T.L., Nelson, T.F., Lenk, K.M. (2009). The Age-21 Minimum Legal Drinking Age: A Case Study Linking Past and Current Debates, Addiction POLICY CASE STUDIESdoi:10.1111/j.1360-0443.2009.02742.xa Letter Complete Name Course: Date of Submission: Addressee’s Name Designation Dear _________ : During the revision process, I have noticed that my work lacked coherence and organization due to incorrect grammatical structures and that I ought to be consistent with third person point-of-view for such type of academic paper. Adjustments have been made accordingly and the work is completely cited with 6 sources in all and I considered rephrasing so there is not much use of direct quotes within the text. There are about 6 and a half pages accomplished regarding the topic “Drinking Age” and I did follow the instructions necessary to fulfill the objective of research. Thank You. Sincerely, __________ Read More