Alcohol and Crime in the US - Annotated Bibliography Example

Topic: Alcohol and crime Topic: I am studying the link between Alcohol and violence in the US because I want to find out if there is any relationship between individuals Alcohol consumption and their engagement in acts of crime. This is in order to help my readers understand this connection and embark on seeking ways to alleviate this. Wagenaar, A. Effects of an Increase in the Legal Minimum Drinking Age. Journal of Public Health Policy: Palgrave Macmillan Journals, 1981. 206-225. Print. The article addresses the legal minimum drinking age in the US. According to Wagenaar, the legal age was reduced from the adult age of twenty-one to include the youths of age eighteen. There had been a lowered drinking age in Michigan. The author claims that lowered drinking age increased alcohol related problems, particularly road accidents among the youngsters between the ages of 18-21 (206). The sub-claim is that this forced the states to rise the legal drinking age again to twenty-one. The author supports his claim by referring to the findings of researches that were done, that indicated that alcohol related accidents increased from 15% to 25% after the reduction of the legal drinking age (218). The author applies the theory of minimum drinking age. The theory proposes that the reduction in legal drinking age causes changes in traffic crash and accidents involvement by increasing their chances of occurrence. This is because; a reduction in drinking age changes the drinking norms of the youths by increasing the number of those who drink. This increases the rates of drunken and careless driving and consequently traffic crashes. I found this article useful for this article with information that can support my claim that alcohol is linked to crime. This is because; the findings of the researches undertaken indicated an increase in the road accident crimes, because of the reduction in drinking age. The author of the article is Wagenaar and the article can be found in jstor. Hutchison, Ira. The Effect of Childrens Presence on Alcohol Use by Spouse Abusers and Their Victims. Family relations, 1999. 57-65. Print. The article examines the relationship of the violent male alcohol consumers and the female victims, to the presence of children. According to Hutchison, the presence of children had a little impact on the violence of these alcohol consumers. The author claims that alcohol is the root cause of violence at homes. The sub-claim is that the presence of children in such a family where violence and battering is common does not affect the occurrence of violence (58). The author supports this claim by evaluating the evidence supplied to the police, and how the presence of children affects this. The alcohol consumer continues to batter their women even in the presence of their children. According to the article, although alcohol is directly linked to violence and crime, there is not empirical data to support this (60). While there is extensive study on the link between alcohol violence and crime, the impacts of children presence in such incidences is not well covered. According to Hutchison, there exist a connection between alcohol consumption and the committal of acts of violence and crime. The presence of children in the event of their mothers battering is likely to cause them depression, which makes them turn violent (63). I found this article with sufficient information to support my claim that there is a link between alcohol and crime. This is so because; the article gives information that establishes a connection between alcohol and crime, by evaluating evidence supplied to police, that shows alcohol as the root cause of violence at home. The author of the article is Ira Hutchison a member of the National Council of Family relations. This gives credibility of the information due to his understanding of the family related issues. The article can be found in jstor, published by National Council of Family relations. Sampson, R., and Laub, John. Crime and Deviance in the life course. Annual review of Sociology, 2004. 63-84. Print. Sampson and Laub approach the study by seeking the relationship between age, crime and drug abuse. They observe that most of the deviant individuals in the society are the adolescents. The authors claim that that there is a strong relationship between age and crime (65). Their sub-claim is that crime reaches its peak during adolescent stage and then declines. They support this claim by integrating the findings on longitudinal research on childhood antisocial behavior and the adult crime theory of lifetime. According to them, these adolescents are the significant abusers of drugs, alcohol consumption included. This translates to their deviance attitude and significant involvement in violence and crime (79). Sampson and Laub integrate the deviant attitude of the youngster, with criminology and drug abuse. They give reasons that are worth believing that adolescent’s deviant attitude is subscribed to by alcohol and other drugs consumption, consequently steering their evolvement in acts of crime (81). The evidence presented by Sampson and Laub to this effect is the data on life transition stages. From this evidence, many people start consuming alcohol and other drugs at the age of 12. This is when alcoholism sets in, followed eventually by the deviant attitude that leads to committal of criminal acts (83). Sampson and Laub give a concluding agenda that point to the relationship between the adolescent stage of life, deviance, alcohol consumption, and committal of criminal acts. I found reasonable information from this article that can support my claim that alcohol is linked to crime, by having the author integrate the findings on longitudinal research on childhood behavior with adult crime. Even though this article does not give any direct contribution to the argument that there is a link between alcohol consumption and the committal of criminal acts, it gives relevant information. The authors of the article are Sampson, of Department of sociology University of Chicago and Laub of college of criminal justice. It is published by annual Review of sociology and it can be found in jstor. Thus, the article becomes of substantial use in the study of the link between alcohol and crime. Cleveland, H. and Wiebe, R. The Moderation of Adolescent-to-Peer Similarity in Tobacco and Alcohol Use by School Levels of Substance Use. Child development, 2003. 279-291. Print. This article, by Cleveland and Wiebe evaluates the effects of school-level smoking and drinking, on students. It examines how this translates to the peer influence and eventually to molding the individual and group character (280). It is observed that students derive their smoking and drinking habits from their peers. This happens in their socialization process, as the student’s forms the friendship and social ties that results to strong bonding in character. This character bonding enhances their chances of indulging in alcohol consumption and smoking. When the friendship is threatened, they are likely to turn violent and indulge in criminal activities. The author claims the smoking and drinking habits are derived from peers at school (285). However, the sub-claim is that the social context can also influence this habit. The authors support this claim by examining the socialization process; how it affects the individual behavior. According to Cleveland and Wiebe, this social bonding translates to similarity of character among the members of the social group. This bonding increases the risk-taking propensity of the group members, a fact that supports their indulgent in anti-social violent and criminal acts. The article provides evidence based empirical data that shows the transformation of individual character through per influence (287). According to this article, smoking and alcohol consumption coupled with peer pressure and influence translates to violence and criminology. I found sufficient information from this article to support my claim that alcohol is linked to crime. This is because the author has given evidence based on the socialization process that shows peer influence on an individual character that eventually makes them indifferent to violence and crime. Although the article does not handle the influence of the social setting, other than school peers on the smoking and alcohol consumption, the article is worth of deriving information. The authors of the article are Cleveland and Wiebe. It is published by Institute of Child development and it can be found in jstor. Since the article points to the existence of a relationship between substances abuse and criminology, it offers a basis that indicates smoking and alcohol consumption are linked to violence and crime and will be used in this study. Birkbeck, C., and LaFree, G. The Situational Analysis of Crime and Deviance. Annual Review of Sociology. Department of sociology: University of Mexico, 1993. 113-137. Print. The article examines the context under which any crime and acts o deviance. According to Birkbeck and LaFree, crime is mostly an occurrence brought about by the situational context that an individual committing such acts of crime have found themselves .The authors claim that the explanation for deviance is either situational or dispositional (115).The interactions and opportunities that present themselves entice individuals to indulge in crime. The sub-claim however, is that of the explanations, the situational one is more important. To support their claims, they have referred to the dispositional theories undertaken by sociologists. The acts of deviance, according to the article are reinforced by alcohol and other drugs abuse. The situational theory argues that an individual is at liberty to interpret situations and determine when it is appropriate to carry out such criminal acts. Thus, according to Birkbeck and LaFree, the consumption of alcohol is a major contributor to the committal of acts of crimes by individuals. I found some evidence that could be applied to support my claim that there is a link between alcohol and crime, because, the authors applies the situational theory, explaining that when an individual is under the influence of alcohol and drugs, he is prone to act without assessing the situation. The article may have failed to analyze all the factors that motivate individuals to indulge in acts of crimes, but it provides information to the effect that consumption of alcohol is well linked to committing criminal acts. With the limitation, though on the emphasis on the affected party rather than the offender, the article and the above stated theory give substantial information to link alcohol and crime. The authors of the article are Birkbeck and LaFree of department of sociology, University of Mexico. It is published by annual Review of sociology and it can be found in jstor. Thus, this article will be referred to in this research to seek the relationship. Read More