Links between alcohol and crime
Alcohol related crime includes not only offences that are alcohol specific such as drunk and disorderly or offences against the licensing laws but covers a range of offences which involve alcohol to a greater or lesser degree.
Alcohol can be a disinhibitor, can be used as an excuse, or can result in crime because the individual has a drinking problem. Although alcohol can cause crime, usually it is no more than associated with offending.
Alcohol can be associated with a wide variety of crimes and the relationship is not simple. Alcohol related crime can fall into a number of categories:
Offences which specifically mention alcohol
- Drinking and driving
- Being incapable or disorderly in a public place having consumed alcohol
- Being in contravention of occupational regulatory law
Offences against the Licensing Law
- Serving under-age drinkers
- Selling alcohol to under-age drinkers
- Serving people who are already intoxicated
- Offences committed while under the disinhibiting effects of alcohol where alcohol has affected the person’s self-control or judgement
- Where alcohol is used for ‘dutch courage’ e.g. a burglary
Offences resulting from an alcohol problem where alcohol need not have been consumed immediately prior to the offence being committed.
- To obtain money or goods where income has been spent on alcohol
- Stealing alcohol to consume
- Stealing goods to sell to buy alcohol
- Offences where alcohol is used as an excuse
- An account given in court to explain away criminal behaviour
Other research (Alcohol and Crime: Breaking the Link, 1995, All Party Group on Alcohol Misuse) suggests ten possible associations between alcohol and crime:
- Alcohol-defined crimes – driving over the limit, public drunkenness and some 20 other offences are criminal acts that can only be committed after consuming alcohol.
- Disinhibition – many offenders ascribe their crimes to the disinhibiting effects of alcohol along the lines of ‘It was a crazy thing to do, but we had been drinking’.
- Alcohol and violence – alcohol use features in a high percentage of violent offences and is particularly associated with domestic violence.
- Dutch Courage – where a pre-crime drink is involved – possibly to settle the nerves.
- Crime and economics – some individuals may have a sufficiently serious alcohol problem to be unable to sustain employment. In addition they may need funds for increased alcohol consumption. Petty shoplifting of and for alcohol remains a prevalent offence.
- Drinking and criminal behaviour to combat isolation – some individuals who are socially isolated may form relationships mainly through informal drinking clubs. Drinking or committing crimes together may define and reinforce this social grouping. People on a roundabout of alcohol use, petty crime and short prison sentences may be particularly likely to come within this category
- Alcohol and impairment of cognition – alcohol impaires our abilities to think and make decisions causing us to do things we wouldn’t if we were sober
- Crime at closing time – offences of violence outside the home are most commonly committed at ‘chucking out time’ when pubs evict large numbers of drunken young men into small city center areas.
- Alcohol, Crime and Incompetence – offenders who are drunk are more likely to have their crimes detected and are more likely to be apprehended.
- Coincidental – most crime is committed by young men, most alcohol is consumed by young men. Drinking and offending commonly start together, take similar forms and end together – the connection may be no more than this.
