NCJ Number
222665
Journal
Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency Volume: 45 Issue: 2 Dated: May 2008 Pages: 119-141
Date Published
May 2008
Length
23 pages
Annotation
This study examined the relationship between intoxication, chronic alcohol use, and violent behavior using data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health.
Abstract
The evidence suggests that the relationship between adolescents who drink are more likely to engage in violence than adolescents who do not drink is mostly false. Drinkers are much more likely to engage in violence while sober and this tendency is almost as strong as the overall relationship between being a drinker and engaging in violence. Presumably some individual difference factors affect both types of delinquency, producing a false relationship. The evidence suggests that the relationship that frequent drinkers are more likely to engage in violence than infrequent drinkers is partly false and partly causal. This is the results of the situational effects of intoxication. The evidence on the affects of quantity of alcohol consumed also suggests a causal effect of intoxication. The conclusion is that the evidence on both frequency and quantity of drinking suggests a causal effect of intoxication. Underage drinking and an inclination toward violence among adolescents are both well-known phenomenon. This study introduces a method for disentangling inaccuracy from the causal effects of situational variables. The study attempted to estimate how much of the relationship between frequent alcohol use and violence was due to the causal effects of intoxication, and how much was inaccurate. It also examined whether the effects of intoxication depended on the adolescent’s gender and other social-demographic characteristics. Tables, notes, and references