The Role of Alcohol: Evaluating its Implication on College Campus Crimes Essay Example

The researchers found that the number of crime or violent incidents had increased significantly from 1994 up to 1996 (Nicholson et al., 1998).

In 1996, three times the number of females as compared to their male counterparts stated that they were victims of unwanted sexual activity and approximately 85% of both genders reported that alcohol was involved (Nicholson et al., 1998). Howard, Griffin, and Boekeloo (2008) assessed the psychological links of sexual assaults that were spurred by alcohol consumption. They conducted their study on university students. They used 1269 students (635 females and 634 males) for their investigation and administered questionnaires to them.

551 students responded, and of this number, 227 were males, representing a 35.3% response rate and 324 were females, representing a 51% response rate. The overall response rate was 43.4%. The males reported a lower prevalence of alcohol-related sexual violence as opposed to their female counterparts (6.6% vs. 20.4%). The likelihood for females who reported binge drinking and other forms of assaults linked to the consumption of alcohol to report alcohol-related sexual violence was higher as compared to the males who only reported other variants of alcohol-related savagery. Howard et al.

(2008) established that alcohol-related sexual violence is linked with certain other risk factors such as a person’s gender that need consideration through intervention efforts and longitudinal examination. Wilke, Siebert, Delva, Philip, and Howell (2005) studied the “gender differences in college students high-risk drinking as measured by an estimated blood alcohol concentration (eBAC) based on gender, height, weight, self-reported number of drinks, and hours spent in drinking.” (Wilke et al., 2005, p. 79). 1422 students at a big university in the South East were used.

Data

was collected through a probability sample survey of students via mail survey. The study found that more women were high-risk drinkers according to their eBAC as opposed to the men. High-risk drinking is a state when a person’s BAC gets to be at 0.08 or above that level after drinking. The researchers cited the limitations of the instruments employed as a factor that could discredit their finding but still maintained that they were consistent and individual factors such as the person’s gender were the foremost “predictors of high-risk drinking.” (Wilke et al., 2005, p.

79). Similarly, Walter, Florkowski, Anderson and Dunn (2014) made a study on the perception of safety between drinkers and non-drinkers among U.S. college students. In this study, 56,811 students responded to Core Alcohol and Drugs Survey during the 2010 academic school year. Numerous universities administered the survey and students participated in the survey either in class or electronically. Walter et al.

(2014) found that students who drink may have false senses of security that could spur them to take unnecessary risks or place themselves in dangerous situations. Alcohol use was found to be linked with verbal aggression, and there was a reduction in condom use among students who consume alcohol; hence, high risk of sexually transmitted infections and pregnancies amongst these students. Consequently, alcohol use was associated with occurrences of coercion and aggression, and the males were noted to display more pro-violent attitudes as compared to females. Walter et al. (2014) also found out that excessive consumption of alcohol causes poor academic attainments. Walter et al.

(2014) also explored racial differences. African-American male youths were no more likely than Caucasian youths to initiate minor

or major non-violent acts and less likely to initiate violent acts though these findings may be influenced by extraneous variables such as parental supervision or influence of peers. White women were more likely than black women to be under the influence of alcohol at the time of the sexual assault as well as their assailants while black women were more likely to have been assaulted with a weapon. Walter et al. (2014) also did an assessment on the prevalence of alcohol-related violence amongst students of different grades and established that savagery was more rampant amongst the students in the higher grades as compared to those in the lower grades.

More violence was noted as one moved higher up the grades. These findings demonstrated the fact that alcohol use plays a vital role in the race and sexual based violence towards women and should be taken into consideration when formulating prevention strategies. White & Hingston (2013) conducted a similar study on excessive alcohol consumption and related consequences among both drinking and non-drinking college students. They established that drinking to intoxication leads to widespread impairments in cognitive abilities, which included but not limited to decision-making and impulse control, and impairments in motor and movement skills.

Traffic crashes and accidents were also as a result of drunkenness. Death was foremost amongst the alcohol-related consequences and crimes and more than 18000 college students between the ages of 18 and 24 die every year from alcohol-related injuries including motor crushes (White & Hingson, 2013). That makes the college campuses unsafe and susceptible to crimes such as murder even when unintentionally committed. The study also estimated the injury cases to be around 599,000

for students between the ages of 18-24 years who were under the influence of alcohol at the time.

Moreover, the annual number of students who were being assaulted by drinkers was estimated to be around 646,000 (White & Hingson, 2013). Sulkowski & Lazarus (2011) investigated the efforts that college administrations were making to avail crime data to parents and students. They found that there were no serious efforts to boost campus security. Sulkowski & Lazarus (2011) underscored the possibility of ridding colleges wholly of all violence if the campus administrations made determined efforts to fight crime.

Vegh (2011) points out the fact that Security on Campus, Inc. (SOC), victims of crimes together with their relatives, public health researchers, and campus feminists are influential in convincing the politicians and the public that “campus atrocity” has been and still is a menace to hundreds of thousands of college students. These groups highlight that millions of college students fall victims to crime, more so where students occasionally consume alcohol in excess (Vegh, 2011). The perpetrators could be known or could be obscure, and the student accountability for security and safety is often reduced. The groups further denounce the college and university administrators for suppressing the acknowledgment of atrocities in campuses in a bid to safeguard the images of these institutions. They cite that only the very naïve would presume that campus life is free of drugs, alcohol, and crimes in general (Vegh, 2011).

Peeler, Far, Miller, and Brigham (2000) investigated the Peer Norms Correction (PNC) procedure’s effects on college students’ actual drinking conduct and their ideas about drinking on campus. The actual aim of this study was to establish an appropriate

method to alter the misperceptions of the norms about the use of alcohol among campus peers, which would help to reduce the cases of peer-induced drinking habits. A total of 262 students (62% females) were recruited for the study from halls of residence, classes, advertisements, and Greek houses and randomly assigned either the modified Self-Management Skills (SMS) curriculum with a one-hour PNC procedure (145 students, 8 sections) or the standard SMS curriculum (117 students, 7 sections). 81 participants in the PNC group and 78 in the SMS completed both the pretest and post-test assessment.

The study found that there is a potential for PNC to change the misperceptions about the norms for the use of alcohol among college peers, which would impact drinking habits. This finding was an eye-opener to the various intervention strategies that can be effectuated to contain the rampant consumption of alcohol in campuses PNC being an appropriate program to this end. Though it is beyond the scope of this review to examine efforts to prevent excessive alcohol drinking, great efforts have been made in this area. However, it has proved impossible to achieve zero percent alcohol consumption among students.

As a result, crime on college campuses continues to be a challenge and concern for security and safety of the students (White & Hingson, 2013).The purpose of this paper was to review the available literature that analyzed the implications of alcohol consumption and its effect on crime. Evidence derived from the review reveals that alcohol consumption has serious implications on campus security by causing crimes, violence, aggression, assault, and damage to property.

References

1. Howard, D. E., Griffin, M. A., & Boekeloo, B. O.
   

(2008). Prevalence and Psychosocial Correlates of Alcohol-Related Sexual Assault among University Students. Adolescence, 43(172), pp. 733–750.