NCJ Number
162001
Journal
British Journal of Criminology Volume: 36 Issue: 2 Dated: (Spring 1996) Pages: 282-298
Date Published
1996
Length
17 pages
Annotation
This study compares and contrasts quantifiable data and motivational accounts obtained from in-depth interviews with 66 persistent young adult offenders, most of whom were also heavy drinkers.
Abstract
The study not only shows how important technique and setting are in producing results, but shows how misguided a primary focus on alcohol as a key variable can be if the consumption of other psychoactive drugs is ignored. The increasing significance of alcohol's entanglement in polydrug use is thus highlighted. Acquisitive crime, violence, and alcohol and drug use may well be connected, particularly in the lives of persistent young adult offenders. As this study shows, however, the linkages are very complex and difficult to describe fully. British criminology, having largely retreated from qualitative, ethnographic community-based studies of subculture and deviant lifestyles, is in danger of losing touch with these issues. This is a concern not just for criminology but also because authoritative explanations are unavailable to challenge the persistent allusions to "alcohol plus young men equals violent crime" that is a key part of the law-and-order discourses that blame youth for society's problems. 1 figure, 1 table, and 40 references