Risk/Benefit Calculations, Moral Evaluations, and Alcohol Use: Exploring the Alcohol-Crime Connection

• NCJ Number: 167290
• Journal: Crime and Delinquency Volume: 43 Issue: 2 Dated: (April 1997) Pages: 222-239
• Author(s): L Lanza-Kaduce; D M Bishop; L Winner
• Date Published: 1997
• Length: 18 pages
• Publication Format: Article
• Publication Type: Report (Study/Research)
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America
• Note: DCC.

Annotation

This research explored whether alcohol consumption is related to social-psychological processes that occupy a central place in criminological theories.

Abstract

A quasi-experiment was conducted at college parties to examine the connections between alcohol consumption and moral definitions, risk calculations, and the perceived desirability of crime. The analyses involved 82 college-student party-goers, who were surveyed both at the beginning of the party and after partying for 2 to 3 hours. Of these, four subjects were eliminated due to missing data on survey items; data from 78 subjects were analyzed. The pretests and posttests examined connections between alcohol consumption and moral definitions, risk calculations, and the perceived desirability of crime. Those who did not drink at the parties arrived with the highest perceptions of sanction risk. Pre-party levels of moral definitions or perceived desirability of crime did not predict the amount of alcohol consumed; however, heavier drinking during the parties tempered moral condemnation of criminal acts, enhanced the desirability of criminal behavior, and relaxed perceptions of risk regarding crime. The simple policy implication of this research is that crime can be reduced by preventing heavy drinking. Both deterrence-based strategies and education campaigns can target intoxication; however, these strategies fail to recognize and address the social contexts and groups in which people learn expectations about the effects of alcohol consumption. These effects include learning norms of drunken comportment, learning the contexts in which drinking can be considered a "time out" from ordinary constraints, and learning to anticipate pleasurable moods. What is needed are more complex interventions that target groups in social contexts that support learned expectations about heavy drinking. Appended survey instrument, 3 tables, 9 notes, and 57 references