http://society.guardian.co.uk/drugsandalcohol/story/0,8150,1519325,00.html

Report links crime and binge drinking

Katherine Demopoulos
Friday July 1, 2005

Nearly half of young adults are binge drinkers who are
responsible for a disproportionate number of crimes, according
to new figures from the Home Office.

The latest findings, from the 2003 Offending, Crime and Justice
survey identifies 44% of young adults aged 18 to 24 as binge
drinkers, and says this age group has the highest number of
heavy drinkers.

Warning that there is no universally agreed definition of binge
drinking, the Home Office used self-reported drunkenness to
reach its own definition. According to the Home Office, binge
drinkers are "those who drink at least once a month and reported
feeling very drunk at least once a month in the past 12 months."

Despite the ongoing media interest in excessive drinking in
young females, a higher proportion of men (49%) than women (39%)
are binge drinkers.

There are also higher levels of offending among binge drinkers,
but the researchers caution that "this is not to say that binge
drinking causes crime or that all binge drinkers take part in
criminal or disorderly behaviour."

The data shows that young adult binge drinkers account for just
6%of the adult sample, but they committed 30% of all crimes and
24% of violent offences.

Young male drinkers are more than twice as likely to commit a
violent offence as other young male regular drinkers, and 58% of
drug-dealing offences are committed by 18 to 24-year-old binge
drinkers.

Home Office spokeswoman Jane Parsons commented: "The government
recognises that alcohol-related violence is too high. Hence the
provisions in the violent crime bill."

Richard Garside, the director of the Crime and Society
Foundation at King's College London, added that while the data
was interesting, he didn't consider it "the most convincing or
robust data the Home Office has ever put out."

His initial criticism was the definition of binge drinking
itself. "It's interesting that they've chosen to pick such a
broad definition. I think on that basis most of Fleet Street
would fall into the category of binge drinking. There are
questions here of how useful that definition is."

"They haven't used the units per week consumption, which is more
useful," he said, adding, however, that people often underreport
the units they consume.

Mr Garside also believes there is a misguided tendency to
presume the link between alcohol and offence, and he stressed
that nothing is proven by the current data. "You'll pick up
people who've committed a crime, and because they've got alcohol
in their blood they put two and two together and get five. This
survey doesn't actually prove alcohol causes more crime and
disorder."

Despite the tendency to presume a link between drinking and
crime, the only offence where there is a really strong
correlation is violence - in the form of young men and the
traditional post-pub punch-up, Mr Garside said.

The link with drug dealing is not unexpected, he said, but the
alcohol is not necessarily a causal factor in the crime. "People
who are often abusing drugs will often deal them. Classically
you also might be drinking far too much. But because they've got
such a broad definition you're scooping up a whole kind of
individual and behaviours into one broad definition."

He warned: "There are very different types of behaviours, which
are often driven by very different things. Whether that means
it's the alcohol that's driving them is a very different thing."

"Oberon" wrote in message
news
http://society.guardian.co.uk/drugsandalcohol/story/0,8150,1519325,00.html

Report links crime and binge drinking

Katherine Demopoulos
Friday July 1, 2005

Nearly half of young adults are binge drinkers who are
responsible for a disproportionate number of crimes, according
to new figures from the Home Office.

The latest findings, from the 2003 Offending, Crime and Justice
survey identifies 44% of young adults aged 18 to 24 as binge
drinkers, and says this age group has the highest number of
heavy drinkers.

Warning that there is no universally agreed definition of binge
drinking, the Home Office used self-reported drunkenness to
reach its own definition. According to the Home Office, binge
drinkers are "those who drink at least once a month and reported
feeling very drunk at least once a month in the past 12 months."

Despite the ongoing media interest in excessive drinking in
young females, a higher proportion of men (49%) than women (39%)
are binge drinkers.

There are also higher levels of offending among binge drinkers,
but the researchers caution that "this is not to say that binge
drinking causes crime or that all binge drinkers take part in
criminal or disorderly behaviour."

The data shows that young adult binge drinkers account for just
6%of the adult sample, but they committed 30% of all crimes and
24% of violent offences.

Young male drinkers are more than twice as likely to commit a
violent offence as other young male regular drinkers, and 58% of
drug-dealing offences are committed by 18 to 24-year-old binge
drinkers.

Home Office spokeswoman Jane Parsons commented: "The government
recognises that alcohol-related violence is too high. Hence the
provisions in the violent crime bill."

Richard Garside, the director of the Crime and Society
Foundation at King's College London, added that while the data
was interesting, he didn't consider it "the most convincing or
robust data the Home Office has ever put out."

His initial criticism was the definition of binge drinking
itself. "It's interesting that they've chosen to pick such a
broad definition. I think on that basis most of Fleet Street
would fall into the category of binge drinking. There are
questions here of how useful that definition is."

"They haven't used the units per week consumption, which is more
useful," he said, adding, however, that people often underreport
the units they consume.

Mr Garside also believes there is a misguided tendency to
presume the link between alcohol and offence, and he stressed
that nothing is proven by the current data. "You'll pick up
people who've committed a crime, and because they've got alcohol
in their blood they put two and two together and get five. This
survey doesn't actually prove alcohol causes more crime and
disorder."

Despite the tendency to presume a link between drinking and
crime, the only offence where there is a really strong
correlation is violence - in the form of young men and the
traditional post-pub punch-up, Mr Garside said.

The link with drug dealing is not unexpected, he said, but the
alcohol is not necessarily a causal factor in the crime. "People
who are often abusing drugs will often deal them. Classically
you also might be drinking far too much. But because they've got
such a broad definition you're scooping up a whole kind of
individual and behaviours into one broad definition."

He warned: "There are very different types of behaviours, which
are often driven by very different things. Whether that means
it's the alcohol that's driving them is a very different thing."

Regarding the last point:-
How you interpret data like this has to be done very carefully.
For example, where alcohol drinking and misbehaviour occur,
it is too easy to blame alcohol.
It might be that irresposible and lawless youth are just as likley
to commit violence as they are to overdrink, and the blame is
directly with them and the people who brought them up, rather
than the availability of alcohol.
I fear that a hysterical response would be to give in to pressure
to ban sales of alcohol, rather than to police, bring to justice to,
and punish offenders.

Anti-social and violent behaviour is a reflection of our society and
cannot be "cured" or simple solutions be found, since changes in
our culture tend to change by the generations rather than by the year.

I do think that they should be allowed a sip or two of some fine wines
as a comparison to the stuff that will be tasteless after the first six
cans.
:-)
(cross post addresses snipped)

--
Interested

Salut/Hi Oberon,

Your post was Cross posted to uk.politics.drugs:41303
talk.politics.drugs:171804 alt.food.wine:66910

in view of the cross posts this is a blatant troll.

Please don't, it's not going to make you any friends, nor result in helpful
discussion.

le/on Mon, 04 Jul 2005 07:07:21 GMT, tu disais/you said:-

http://society.guardian.co.uk/drugsandalcohol/story/0,8150,1519325,00.html

Report links crime and binge drinking

I'd also point out that this is an international newsgroup, with only a
minority of readers in the UK. So an article for a UK readership will find
it of very little interest.

--
All the Best
Ian Hoare
http://www.souvigne.com
mailbox full to avoid spam. try me at website